Splatoon 2: Next Wave
by Finley Splatterson
Summary: Arthur's somewhat simple life starts to get more exciting after he spies a gray-haired Inkling girl in distress in Inkopolis Square. With his better judgement out the window, he agrees to embark on the most daring rescue mission ever. While Octarian opposition is bad enough, his own lack of experience might get in the way. Can he really do this? (Based on Single-player campaign)
1. New Squid in School

_**AN**_ **:** **I'M BACK, EVERYONE! And I brought a sequel with me! Get ready for a retelling of the _Splatoon 2_ story mode complete with extra ideas to make it more interesting. I have no idea how this is gonna go, but I hope you guys will like it. It's only the beginning, but let me know what you think so far. [I still don't have a _Nintendo Switch._ ] **

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 1: New Squid in School

Hey, guys! I bet you're thinking that this is gonna be a really awesome story about a naturally brave and highly-skilled Inkling who becomes a legendary hero. His story will be passed down for generations to come and will never be forgotten and everything.

You're thinking that kind of story, right? Well, if you are, sorry, but that's not _exactly_ what's gonna happen here. I should know since I'm telling the story.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I haven't even told you guys who I am yet...

My name's Arthur Inkerman. I've lived in Inkopolis for about 2 years now, and I can't say that anything too exciting has happened since I moved here. Well, I can't say that. There was that one time when the Great Zapfish went missing and someone brought it back. (Personally, I found that hard to believe.) There was also my sister, Amy, telling me that she met and made friends with an Inkling boy with red eyes. I didn't believe _that_ until I met him myself...

Anyway, I live in Coral Reef Apartments which is a little ways from the most popular Inkling hangout (as of now), Inkopolis Square; and I attend Inkblot Art Academy. With Turf Wars becoming more expansive, the school is open sometimes to allow teams to battle out on the campus. Why they allowed that, I have no idea.

Today, Amy and I were going to our art and music classes (which is pretty much all they teach there) when Amy told me that someone is gonna be joining my class.

"Not sure if I'm gonna like this..." I said uneasily. "They're gonna get the 'new squid treatment'..."

"You worry too much, Arthur," she said.

"You don't get it, Amy. Some people in my class are absolute jerks. They might give the new student some trouble."

"Well, then that's when you step in and try to help."

"What?! No!"

"Oh, come on! You know what it's like being the new guy. Maybe you could at least be their first friend."

"Mmm...well...I'll try, but I probably won't like it..."

"You're about as anxious as Craymond..."

"Ignoring that..."

Amelia (or Amy for short) always had some way of getting me mixed up in some weird situations, but that's what happens when your younger sister is ten times more outgoing than you...

We separated to go to our classes and agreed to meet at the Square once we were let out.

* * *

"Alright, class," my teacher said before class began. "I have news for today. We're getting a new student, and I want everyone to make him feel welcome."

The class starting talking about what the new guy will be like. Honestly, I tried to ignore all of it.

"I hope this new guy can play in Turf Wars," one guy said.

"If he can," another guy said, "he's automatically better at them than Arthur."

"Hey!" I protested.

The people who heard that laughed. Unfortunately, I couldn't defend myself because that guy was kinda right...

I never really competed in Turf Wars before. I know what they are and how they work mainly because Amy explained them to me, but I never decided to try them out myself. She competed in them the minute we came to Inkopolis and tried to get me to join her, but I never had much of an interest to actually compete in them.

Soon, there was a knock at the door, and the entire room turned their attention to it.

"Oh, that must be him," the teacher said. She went to the door to let in the student, and once I saw him, I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped and hit my desk.

It was Finley, the Inkling boy with red eyes that my sister competes in Turf Wars with.

He wore a cyan jacket, a red pair of noise canceling headphones around his neck, round black glasses, black shorts, and a pair of black shoes with a cyan arrow and soles. He also had a red and black backpack. His cyan hair was also styled differently from the last time I saw him because they were now spiked up and slightly combed back.

He gave a nervous smile and waved to the class.

"Class," the teacher started. "I'd like to introduce you all to our newest student, Finley Splatterson."

"Hi, Finley," we all said (some kinda in a monotone voice).

"Um...h-hello..." he said timidly. "You can call me 'Fin' for short if you want..."

"We're very glad to have you, Fin," the teacher said.

He took a seat in the remaining desk in the back of the room...which just so happened to be directly next to me. I whispered "Hey" to him, and he nodded in response. He seemed to relax just a bit as the teacher began talking. I could overhear some of my classmates talking about how weird his eyes were, but luckily, he didn't hear them.

Finley and I are actually good friends already. We met a while back when he, Amy, and their team wanted to have a "strategy meeting" (which involved hanging out at a café). She brought me along to introduce me to her new friends and hopefully get some new ideas out of me. Finley and I hit it off pretty well. We both liked playing video games and had several other interests in common. I asked him if he wore red contacts, and he explained to me that they were naturally red (mainly by showing me pictures). Needless to say, we were cool. I didn't know that he was gonna be in my class, though. I decided to ask him why he came here once class was over.

Unfortunately, that's when some of the trouble started...

* * *

When class let out and we all left the building, I saw Finley and tried to catch up to talk to him, but some other students had already gotten his attention. And he was _not_ loving it...

"Hey, new guy," a guy said. "Are your eyes really red?"

Fin nodded nervously.

"No way!" a girl said. "Tell me you're joking!"

He shook his head, but I could tell from his expression that he _wished_ that he was joking. He's told me that he's gotten a lot of attention for his eye color before, but he's not a fan of having the spotlight. Unfortunately, nobody told a certain set of twin squids named Stinger (a boy) and Storm (a girl). (By the way, those weren't really their names; they were just nicknames for what they do in Turf Wars with their special weapons...in fact, they were self-given...)

"Heh, check out the new squid, sis," Stinger said. "He's hogging all the attention."

"Yeah," Storm agreed. "That's our job! Who does he think he is?!" They shoved their way through a growing crowd of Inklings and stood in front of Fin.

"Uh-oh...this could be bad..." I thought. The crowd must've thought the same thing because they were instantly starting scattering until it was just them. I watched from around a corner.

Just then, Amy came by.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Looks like the 'new student' made some new 'friends'..." I said as I pointed to the three.

"Oh, no..." she said nervously. "Not those two..."

"Should we help him?"

"Finley has an interesting way of dealing with jerks. Let's see how this goes."

"How's it going, newbie?" Stinger said while glaring at Fin.

"Fine..." Fin said calmly.

"Enjoying the spotlight your stealing by ripping off our look?" Storm said while getting in his face.

Even though I always thought that Amy had a bit of a temper, Storm had her topped. She especially hated when someone gets more attention than her. She had dark purple hair with one curled tentacle hanging down, wore a small purple shirt, an S-shaped hairclip, black shorts, and black boots.

Her brother had his dark purple hair in a topknot, a dark purple shirt with a black jacket, black shorts, and black sneakers. He was a bit quieter than Storm, but I could tell that he didn't like Fin getting the attention as much as his sister. Needless to say, they both thought that they're meant for stardom. (...In their dreams, maybe.)

"Uh...not really. And you two are...?"

"Call me Storm, and this is my brother Stinger."

"I take it that you two don't like the fact that people noticed my eye color. Am I right?"

"Wow, how'd you guess?" she said sarcastically. "We're the only ones here who own the red contact look, so take those out...or else..."

They were notoriously known for wearing contacts that made their eyes red, and they were also notoriously known for not liking people who tried to rip off their look. Unfortunately for Finley, he couldn't help it.

"These aren't contacts...they're natural. So, technically, don't I truly own the red contact look?" he chuckled uneasily.

"Think your funny, huh?" Stinger said more threateningly.

"Well...um... a little...?"

Amy and I facepalmed at the same time.

"Is he trying to get himself splatted?!" Amy shrieked quietly.

"I don't think you heard me..." Storm said menacingly. "Take those contacts out... _or else_...!"

"I don't think you heard me either," Fin said. "My...eyes...are... _naturally_...red. Okay? I can't change what color they are."

Storm bared her teeth at him and clenched her fists. We could see her face turn red with rage.

"I can..." she said through her teeth. "How about I turn them black...?"

"I pushed you a bit too far, didn't I...?" Fin said in a low voice as he realized that he made a huge mistake. He smiled nervously.

"What do you think, dude?!" I yelled internally. We needed to help him somehow. Luckily, Amy already had a plan. Too bad that I didn't ask what it was first...

"Hey, Storm!" she yelled.

"WHAT?! I'M BUSY!" she yelled as she turned her attention to us.

"You know, he rocks the red eye look better than you ever could! You sure you two aren't trying to rip off _his_ look?"

"She's got a point, guys! He had those eyes from birth! How long have you two had them?" I yelled to back her up. (I regretted saying that the moment I did.)

"Why, you little...!" she instantly charged toward us with Stinger by her side.

"FINLEY! RUN!" Amy yelled to him. He took her advice soundly, and the two of us split up around the twins and tried to catch up to him.

"If I had my Splatling, you'd all be splatted!" we heard her yell behind us.

You know what's strange? Finley said that his sarcasm and wit has landed him in trouble several times even though he's just being kinda honest. He also warned that the craziness that ensues afterward usually is a bit contagious...and apparently, he wasn't joking...

 _But today was nothing compared to the world of craziness that I was gonna get into soon..._

* * *

 ** _AN : _One chapter down, an uncertain amount to go. Hope you all liked this one so far.**

 **And now here's Arthur's bio:**

 **Hair (style and color)** **: Ponytail with the tentacle bangs combed to his right, bright orange**

 **Eye color** **: Bright blue**

 **Skin color** **: Light tan (like his younger sister)**

 **Age** **: Same as Fin (about 17-18)**

 **Personality** **: Reserved, soft-spoken, smart, clever, and just a little clumsy. He's also got a good heart (or 3) and is usually friendly. He's more of a thinker than an doer which is why he hasn't competed in Turf Wars (or their variations in Ranked) before but knows how they work and even comes up with some good strategies for his sister's team. However, sometimes he tends to overthink things too much and get lost in his thoughts, and he often becomes really self-conscious and insecure whenever someone brings up that he's never been in a Turf War.**

 **He and Amy have an strong bond as siblings as he always tries to keep her out of trouble and she sticks up for him when he gets in trouble (or if she gets him in trouble). But that doesn't keep them from having their own disagreements sometimes. He came to Inkopolis a week before her, and they both live in the same apartment. He likes hanging out with Finley because they have similar personalities and interests.**

 **Physical Description** **: Slightly above average height for an Inkling, thin build. He often wears Retro Specs, an orange zip up hoodie, loose capris, and red Hi-Horses.**


	2. Secrets in the Square

**AN: Hey, guys! First thing I wanna say is that I FINALLY got a Switch and Splatoon 2! I've also managed to get gear close enough to what Finley wears (Well, as close as I can get it...). If you have the game and see someone with Retro Specs, Shirt with Blue Hoodie, and Mint Dakroniks/Red Hi-Horses, that might be me playing as him. His pants are loose capris now, too. (Side note: I'm glad that the game has red as an eye color choice. It makes playing as him possible for me. I just wish you could choose the color of your hair...)**

 **Anyway, enough from me; I had to get that out of my system. Here's the next chapter. Hope you all enjoy it.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 2: Secrets in the Square

"Alright," Finley began once we were in the clear, "can someone explain to me what just happened?"

"You just made your first enemies in school," Amy said. "Way to go!"

"Not sure if I like that..."

"Nobody should," I said. "Especially if it's those two..."

He hung his head and sighed.

"Well, it's not like I was expecting things at school to be easy..." he said.

"That also brings up a question, Finley," I said. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to improve my artistic talents, and I heard about this place. I applied, and about a month later, here I am."

"And you didn't tell us, why?" Amy asked.

"I didn't think it was a big deal. I didn't know that you two went here, either. If I did, I would've told you sooner. Sorry."

"Eh, no problem," I said while shrugging.

"So, what do we do now that classes are over today?"

He was right. Today, all the other classes were cancelled for the day because the campus was being used for Turf Wars. We had a free afternoon.

"Hmm...well, Amy and I were planning to go to Inkopolis Square. Wanna come with us?"

His eyes grew wide in surprise.

"Um...sure. I was planning to go there anyway."

"To compete in Turf Wars, I assume?"

"Well, not exactly...I have...other things to check up on..."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

"Uh...nothing...let's go."

He began walking to the square. Amy and I looked at each other questioningly and began following him.

"What do you think he's gonna do this time?" Amy asked me quietly.

I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Finley's been a bit secretive about some stuff lately, and Amy and I have been trying to figure out what's been going on with him. He keeps saying that he has some "other stuff to deal with", but he never tells us what it is. Every time he leaves after saying that, she and I try to guess where he goes and what he does. Personally, I'm starting to get a little suspicious. What's he hiding?

* * *

Once we arrived at Inkopolis Square, we saw dozens of Inklings and Jellyfish walking around and hanging out. And in case you haven't seen what this place looks like, I'll give a quick description.

When you get to the square, the first thing you may notice (aside from all the construction) are the two statues on top of the buildings there. They were a big tortoise on the left and a multicolored origami bird on the right. Under the tortoise was a row of three different clothing shops and a weapon shop collectively known as the Galleria. Also there was a big screen above them showing nothing but commercials for the shops and the brands of the products they sell. Under the origami bird, there was a news studio, a place called the Shoal (which was kinda like a private battle room) and an arcade with a dancing rhythm game out in the front playing some music.

However, the biggest thing in the square had to be Deca Tower. It was a huge tower with some billboards and a jumbo screen above the entrance that often showed the news. This was where everyone went if they wanted to compete in Turf Wars usually with random people. (And yet...for as long as I've been here, I've never set foot in its doors...). What also made it stand out was the fact that the Great Zapfish was wrapped around it. It used to be on Inkopolis Tower in the plaza, but after it went missing and came back, it eventually moved here to the square. It not only gave power to the square but also to the entire city itself.

Oh, yeah. There was also the Crust Bucket. It was a food truck run by Crusty Sean. He was in the shoe-selling business, but he left it to start a different business. His food looked kinda strange, but it tasted deceptively better than it looked. Aside from that strangeness, what was really strange was that he and Finley seemed to know each other pretty well...

"Hey, squiddos," he greeted him. "What's up?"

"The sky and several buildings, Sean," Finley said chuckling. "But other than that, not much."

"Ya sure? I've heard a bit from-" he paused when he saw us. "Uh...you-know-who. Everything cool?""

"More or less..." Finley said as he leaned in closer to keep the conversation between them. Sean nodded approvingly.

"You're a good squid, Fin," he said. "Hope everything works out."

"Thanks. Me, too."

"By the way, ya squids hungry? I got fresh Seanwiches and Shwaffles."

"Now's a great time for lunch, I guess," Amy said.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Finley said. "Sean, these are my friends, Amy and Arthur."

"What's up?" Sean said while waving his claw.

"Not much," I said. "Other than this guy not telling us stuff. Who were you talking about?"

"Just a couple of friends of ours."

"Oh, okay." I still felt like they were being too vague. I decided to drop it as we got our food.

We finished our food and talked for a bit, and Amy suggested that we go see if the Galleria stores had new gear. We all agreed to go check them out.

* * *

The first place we went to was Ye Olde Cloth Shoppe. Just by looking at the name of this place, you'd think that it would have a lot of clothes that were "outdated", but it actually had plenty of fresh clothes in it.

"Welcome to Ye Olde Cloth Shoppe!" Jelfonzo said happily while tipping his hat. Jelfonzo was the bluish-purple Jellyfish who ran the shop. He wore a black hat, a black bowtie with colorful splotches on it, and a green shirt with several stripes on it. However, that's just what he had on when we saw him at that moment. He changes his shirt and hat almost every time we see him...usually within the same day...

"Hi, Jelfonzo," Amy said. "What's new?"

"Lo! Thou art having great fortune for I have much to offer...only if thou shouldst be spending coin to keep thine freshness with thee," he said.

"Let me see what you have, and I'll think about it."

While he showed my sister around, Finley looked a bit awestruck as we looked around the shop on our own.

"What's the problem, Fin?" I asked him.

"I didn't know that he could speak our language," he admitted. "I thought Jelonzo was the only one."

"Jelfonzo is his son."

"Really? I didn't know that."

"Well, sorta...he split off of Jelonzo one day. He told me that he studied some ancient texts to speak it, but I think those texts were a bit dated."

"Well, he does speak a bit more fluently than Jelonzo..."

"But his speech doth be more medieval, dost thou think not?"

"'Tis most interesting."

We paused and looked at each other and started cracking up.

"Let's get out of here," I said. "It's contagious."

"I doth agree," he said. He groaned in annoyance. "Yeah, let's go. But what about Amy?"

"Right. Amy, we're leaving. It's getting too medieval for us..."

She came back with a bag with some clothes in it.

"Someone's been busy..." Finley said.

"Dost thou think I have spent too much coin?" Amy asked.

I grabbed her wrist and made a beeline for the exit.

"We are not doing this again!" I said. "See ya, Jelfonzo."

"Farewell," he called out to us.

Next, we went to Shella Fresh, the shoe shop. (Funny thing, when I came here for the first time, I realized that I had to memorize the order of the shops. I always got some of them switched around...)

The shop was run by a yellow spider-crab named Bisk. He was tall and kinda lanky, wore a black tank top, some white sunglasses, a pair of red, plaid shorts, and two pairs of shoes on his extra legs and a pair of white boots on the legs that he stood on.

"AYYY!" he said when he saw us come in. "Welcome to Shella Fresh."

"Hey, Bisk," I said. "How's it going?"

"I've been working on my music for a bit. Business is slow today." (Bisk plays a bit of the guitar in his spare time. He's not that bad, actually.)

"Well, you might have some now, dude," Finley said as he pointed at Amy. She was instantly looking at some shoes that supposedly improved your running in Turf Wars.

"Seems like it," Bisk said with a small grin as he went over to talk to her.

Suddenly, Finley got a text message on his phone. He gasped a bit when he saw who it was.

"Uh...I...um...gotta go..." he said slowly. "I'll see you guys later."

He left the store.

"What was that all about?" I said to myself.

Amy came back with two shoe boxes.

"Hold on a second," I said in realization. "Amy, did you suggest going to the shops just so you could get new clothes?"

"Uh..." she droned for about five seconds. (I took that as a "yes".) "H-hey, where's Fin?"

"He had to leave."

She looked out the door and started humming in thought.

"What?"

"Where do you think he went this time?"

"Who knows? Maybe he had somewhere to be."

"Maybe he's dealing with that 'other issue'."

We said goodbye to Bisk and went out of the store to find Finley.

"I think I saw him go toward the tower," I said.

"Maybe he went to Headspace. Why don't we check there?"

"Amy, do you just wanna buy another hat? This isn't time for-"

She had already left for the hat shop.

"Dang it, Amy..." I groaned.

I followed her to Headspace, but before I went in, something caught my eye. Or rather someone.

A girl with gray hair holding a bright green parasol was standing by the entrance to Ammo Knights, the weapon shop. She also wore a dark colored kimono. She slightly looked in my direction and saw me looking at her. She blinked for a second before sinking into a sewer grate on the ground beneath her.

"I wonder who that was..." I said as I went into Headspace. "And why did she look kinda...familiar...?"

Headspace was run by a sea slug named Flow and her somewhat paranoid crayfish friend Craymond. Flow wore a big, red hat with slug horns and very baggy clothes. She also had long orange hair and black sandals. Craymond was small enough to sit on her hat most of the time. Flow is really chill about a lot of stuff, and you could tell by the way she looks and speaks.

"Well, look whose here," Flow said with a wave. "Welcome, friend."

"Hi, Flow," I said. "Craymond."

Craymond ducked down hurriedly. I shrugged it off and looked around for Amy. She was trying on hats most likely to see what would go best with her new clothes. I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Flow.

"Uh...have you seen a boy run past your shop in a hurry? If so, do you know where he went?"

"I did," Flow said, "I saw someone outside, and I felt a distressed aura come from him. Are you his friend?"

"Yeah, but he sorta left in a hurry...and what do you mean he had a distressed aura?"

"It felt like he was worried and scared about something troubling him. It felt strong, so it must be something personal to him that's been bothering him for a while..."

"Worried and scared?" I said. "Well, he did seem to get a bit nervous when he got that message. I should find him to make sure he's okay..."

"I sense a good aura coming from you, my friend. Friendly, caring..."

"How about sarcastic?" Amy jumped in.

"That, too."

"Ignoring that..." I said. Suddenly, I remembered the girl outside. "Oh, yeah, by the way, do you know who that girl with the parasol outside is?"

"A girl with a parasol? I don't think I know who that is."

"You saw a girl with a parasol? When?" Amy asked.

"Just before I got in here," I said. "She doesn't look familiar to me, though."

"And she doesn't sound familiar to me. This is getting deep..."

"We're in Headspace. What'd you expect?"

"Wow, I felt a ton of sarcasm with that response," Flow said.

"Alright..." I groaned. "Let's go..."

"See ya, guys," Amy waved at the shopkeepers.

"Take care, my friends," Flow said.

"I REGRET EVERTHING!" we heard Craymond yell.

Amy and I silently agreed to ignore him.

Once we left the shop, I looked to see the girl again, but she still wasn't there.

"So where did you see this girl?" Amy asked.

"She was over on that grate," I said while pointing to it. "But she sunk into it."

"You sure you didn't just imagine her?" she teased.

"Funny...real funny, Amy."

"Maybe she'll come back. In the meantime, I'm gonna go battle. Wanna come cheer me on?"

"Sure..."

We then went to Deca Tower. But I was still trying to piece together what happened. As I was walking into the tower, I saw the girl come out of the grate. I could feel her looking at me again...

"First, Finley just disappears, and now that girl appears..." I thought as I walked in the tower. "Huh, Amy's right. This is getting deep..."

* * *

 **AN: The mystery continues. We'll see how things go in the next chapter.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. See ya next time!**


	3. Celebrity Sighting and Saving

_**AN:**_ **And I'm back! Funny thing, this story will take a while for me to finish because I'm just starting college. So I won't have much free time to write more chapters. But like I said in the last story, I haven't given up. I'll try to find time to write this story as much as I can, but I can't guarantee when the next chapter will come out. Most likely, I'll find time to write during the breaks, but we'll see how that goes.**

 **But still, I hope you like this chapter.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 3: Celebrity Sighting and Saving

I didn't realize until after I got one foot into the front door of the building that I was about to blindly follow my sister into Deca Tower. I froze once I did. Amy looked back at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Hmm? What're you doing?" she asked.

"I haven't gone in here before, Amy," I said. "Am I allowed to even go in without intending to battle?"

"Actually, I think there's a lobby or resting spot for people who aren't competing."

Although, I was still a little nervous about going in there, I also couldn't stop thinking about Fin. I probably wouldn't have paid attention to Amy's battle anyway.

"You know what, sis? I'm sorry to say it, but I think I'll skip seeing your battle."

A look of disappointment came on her face.

"You sure?" she said. "You've seen me battle only two times already. And they were both times when you just so happen to pass by the area."

I nodded. "I can't shake this feeling that something involving Fin has happened. I wanna find him and figure out what's going on."

She seemed upset that I wasn't gonna watch her match, but she understood me.

"I see..." she said. "Well, if you find him, let me know. I'm kinda worried about him, too..."

I nodded and began to leave, but Amy stopped me.

"Check out Ammo Knights, Arthur. It's the only store that we haven't checked yet. Maybe Sheldon would know something."

"Good idea. I'll go check. Good luck in your battle."

She smiled.

"Thanks, bro." We high-fived and went our separate ways.

I made my way over to Ammo Knights and found Sheldon polishing a small shooter.

"Sheldon?" I said making him jump in surprise. He turned to see me and waved happily.

"Hello, hello, Arthur!" he said. "What brings you here? Weapon shopping for your sister?"

"Not this time," I said. "I'm looking for Fin. Have you seen him recently?"

"Depends on what you mean by 'recently'."

"As in, the last twenty minutes. He sorta just ran off."

Sheldon then looked a little nervous for some reason.

"U-Um...n-no I-I don't think I have...heh heh..." he stuttered.

Normally, Sheldon's not too great at keeping secrets, and this time was no exception. I don't know how, but Sheldon knew Fin before I met him and knows what he looks like.

"Sheldon, you okay?" I asked.

"O-Of c-course..." he said. "W-Why w-wouldn't I b-be...?"

"You seem...anxious...like you know something but don't wanna tell me..."

"W-Well...uh..."

"Could it be that you know where Fin is?"

He was starting to sweat, now. I hated to pry the truth from the poor guy, but I really need answers.

However, before I could get any, there was a bit of commotion going on outside...

That same girl with the parasol that I saw earlier rushed by the front doors as quickly as she could with two people running after her. I recognized the two immediately: the twins.

"Oh, no...this can't end well..." I thought.

Sheldon and I ran out the door in time to here her yell for help.

"Who is that girl?!" I asked Sheldon.

"No time to explain! Take these and go help her!" Sheldon exclaimed as he tossed me a pair of small shooters and an ink tank.

"But...I don't...she...AAARGH!" I gave up trying to argue and ran (and swam) after them with my new weapons. I tried to catch up to them as quickly as I could, and by the time I did, the twins had cornered her in an area blocked off by construction.

"Back off, you two! I'm warning you!" the girl said.

"See what happens when you insult my skills?!" Storm said. "Now, you've got nowhere to go!"

"Think fast, Arthur!" I thought. I then picked up a small rock and threw it as hard as I could at Storm's head to get her attention. It worked...maybe a bit too well...

"Ow...who threw that?!" Storm yelled as she turned to see me. A wicked grin came on her face. "Well, well, look who it is..."

"I b-bet you two are g-glad to see me, r-right?" I stammered while fumbling to keep my shooters in my hands.

"Heh heh, look at yourself!" Stinger said mockingly. "You can't even hold those things still! What are those things and what're you gonna do with them?""

"I don't know...use them?"

The twins laughed and pulled out their weapons. Storm had a Heavy Splatling, and Stinger had a Dynamo Roller.

"Carp...this is bad..." I thought.

I looked at the girl and thought of a quick plan. I shot ink from my weapons in opposite directions.

"Let's play a quick game," I declared. "Sound fun?"

All three looked at me with a confused expression.

"What game?" Stinger said skeptically.

"Choose the right puddle I'm in. If you win, I'm splatted. Deal?"

The twins looked at each other and grinned confidently.

"Fine," they agreed.

"Okay, choose wisely." I sunk into the ink and began moving.

They quickly and viciously splashed ink in the direction of the two puddles covering them with dark purple ink.

"You seriously didn't think that we would fall for that, did you?" Storm said confidently.

"Actually...no, I didn't," I said as I leapt from between the puddles and stood between the girl and the twins.

"What the-?" they said in surprise. "How-?"

"Did you really think I was gonna move at all?" I said.

"Great plan..." the parasol girl told me sarcastically. "Now, we're both cornered..."

"Hey, I'm the one trying to help you, remember?"

"Now, it's my turn to return the favor."

She pulled out a couple of Splat Bombs and tossed them at the twins. They exploded leaving the twins momentarily blinded by the ink.

"Run!" she yelled as she grabbed my wrist and pulled me between them. We managed to get far enough from them that we were able to catch our breath.

"Alright, we're safe..." I said. "At least, I hope we are..."

"Yeah," the girl said. "I appreciate your help...uh..."

"Arthur."

"Arthur, huh? Well, thanks for the help, but I gotta get back to my search."

"Search for what? And who are you, anyway? You seem familiar somehow..."

"Ha Ha! Very funny..."

"No, seriously. I don't believe that you and I have met. What's your name?"

"I'm-"

"HEY! YOU TWO!" I heard Storm yell. "WE'RE NOT THROUGH WITH YOU YET!"

"Come on! Don't those two ever give up?!" the girl said obviously annoyed.

"I wish they would more often. Let's go!"

We took off, but I stopped when we were on top of the grate that the girl stood on before.

"What're you doing?!" she asked. "We need to go; they're coming!"

"I have an idea, but..."

"You know what? Don't care! Just do it!"

"Okay..." I said hesitantly. I turned into my squid form and dove into the grate. I didn't have time to think of a better plan, this was the best I had at the moment.

 _Who knew that this was the moment that changed my life?_

"WAIT! NOT DOWN THERE!" the girl shrieked. She turned into her squid form and tried to block the grate with her body, but instead we both passed through the grate and fell into the dark abyss below it.

We both screamed as we started going through numerous twists and turns until we both came up out of another grate. We flew up into the air for a second and came crashing down. Well, to be specific, I landed first and she landed on top of my back.

"Huh..." the girl thought aloud. "This feels familiar..."

"Can you get off me, please?" I said painfully.

" _Very_ familiar...sorry..." she said while getting up. I noticed that we were in some kind of canyon. There were also several giant rock formations that looked like octopus tentacles.

Once I got up, I got a good look at the girl's face. Pretty, calm, and golden eyes with four-pointed star shaped pupils. Suddenly, my hearts started beating a bit faster, and my palms began to sweat a little. I didn't realize that I had frozen in place staring at her.

"Um...are you okay?" she asked awkwardly.

I snapped back to reality.

"O-Oh, uh, y-yeah..." I managed to say. "W-Well, um, I-I should be asking you. A-Are you okay?"

"Yes, thank you."

"W-Well, that's g-good." I cleared my throat to stop sounding nervous. "So...um...might I have the pleasure of knowing who you are?"

"I'm Marie."

"Marie, huh?"

"Now, I know you're a bit starstruck, but I need you to get over it."

"Starstruck? What're you-?!"

"Yes. I'm THAT Marie. You know...from the Squid Sisters." She then did a cute pose.

"Oh..." I said. "Right...sorry, never heard of you..."

Marie froze and looked shocked.

"You've never heard of me? For eel?!"

"Nice pun..." I said sarcastically.

"Hmph! Well, _someone's_ a bit uncultured..."

"Thanks for that...now where are we?"

"Octo Canyon. For now, that's all you need to know."

"I'm not done with my questions yet. What were you searching for that led to that whole problem that brought us here?"

"I don't need to tell you."

"Now, you're just being difficult!"

"Hey!"

"Well, whatever. At least, you're safe."

"And again, thank you."

"So, how do I get back to the square?"

Marie pointed behind me to a grate on a ramp.

"That's your ticket back," she said.

I walked over to the grate and prepared to leave.

"I guess I'll see you later?" I said looking back at her. But she was already gone. "Okay...that was...weird..."

I made my way back to the square and went into Ammo Knights where Amy and Sheldon were waiting.

"There you are!" Amy exclaimed. "Where have you been?"

"You'd never believe me if I told you," I said as I returned Sheldon's weapons and tank.

"Try me. Sheldon already told me that you went to help someone."

"Fine," I sighed. "I helped Marie of the Squid Sisters get away from Stinger and Storm, and we hid in a grate to lose them. The grate led to a place called Octo Canyon; Marie thanked me and disappeared; and I made my way back here."

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Really?" she asked. "Heh, great story. What _really_ happened?"

"Told you so. It's the truth, and I'm sticking with it."

"Okay, fine, don't tell me!" she said loudly earning an eye roll from me.

"Whatever..." I said. "Thanks for letting me borrow those weapons, Sheldon. What were they, anyway? I haven't seen them before."

Sheldon made a wide grin. (Oh, boy, I knew I shouldn't have asked...)

"These are new weapons designed for Turf Wars," Sheldon explained. "I'm pleased to present: the Splat Dualies! These are the first weapons in Turf War history to allow the user to wield not one, but two shooters! (That's one in each hand.) The name suits them well, don't you think?"

"Uh...yeah..." I said with grin.

"They look kinda cool," Amy said. "Sheldon, how much are they?"

"Soon to be 2400 coins," Sheldon said as he put them under the counter.

"Soon to be?" I said.

"I'm not selling them just yet," he said. "I'm running some field tests with...uh...some associates of mine. Once I get the data I need, I'll be able to perfect them, and mass produce them. I can even use that data to make some new designs and modifications to them."

"Dang it..." Amy groaned.

"Don't worry. Hopefully, the tests won't take too long. You can get them when their ready."

"I'll be first in line!"

"Well, don't expect me to pay for it..." I said. "Can we go now?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. Later, Sheldon."

We both waved goodbye as we exited the store.

"So, what now, Arthur?" she asked. "Also, did you find out what happened to Fin?"

"No, but we might be getting close," I said. "Sheldon seemed a bit nervous when I asked about him."

"Does he know something?"

"He has to. But it's getting a bit late."

"I hope the guy's okay. You don't think he's in trouble, do you?"

"I'm sure he's not in danger or anything. You both told me that he's been in some crazy situations before and got out just fine. If he were in danger, he might be able to handle it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"It's getting kinda late. Why don't we go somewhere to eat to cheer ourselves up? We can keep looking for him tomorrow."

"Sounds good. It's been a while since we last ate."

With that thought, we decided to find a place to eat. While we walked, I couldn't help but think of Marie. She seemed like she knew something else and wanted to tell me, but she had to keep it a secret. That made me wonder: what was she looking for?

"So..." Amy began.

"What is it?"

"You met _the_ Marie, huh?"

"Did she read my mind or something?" I thought.

"Yeah, but I still don't know who she is..." I admitted.

"I do. I'll tell you about them. But I gotta know something very important."

"What?"

"Did you think she was cute?"

I stopped and stared at her with annoyance.

"What?! It's an honest question!" she retorted. "A lot of people thought that she was and still is!"

"That's a question I choose NOT to answer, thank you very much!" I said defiantly.

Despite her continuously trying to get me to answer her question aloud, I answered in my head.

"She wasn't cute. She was beautiful..."

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ **And that's chapter 3 done. And you all can expect Finley to return as the narrator for the next few chapters. That's right, everyone. This story's gonna have two narrators! This'll be a first for me, and I really wanted to give multiple narration a try. In the next chapter, we'll see events from Finley's POV. I'll give cues for who's speaking at the beginning of the chapters from now on.**

 **But until then, hope you all liked this chapter. Review, follow, and favorite if you want. And I'll see you all next time!**

 **[By the way, if you're starting this story first and like it so far, check out my first fanfiction story _Splatoon: Agent 3 Begins_ to see how it all began, and tell me what you think. Hope you like it!]**


	4. Two of a Kind

**_AN:_ I've noticed that whenever I say I don't know when I'll post the next chapter, I always manage to put it up a short time afterward. At this point, I'm not gonna bother to say it again. From now on, it'll be implied.**

 **Now, it's time to see what Finley's been up to since the last story. Hope you all like this chapter. And if you want context for what goes on in this chapter (because there are some spoilers), read my last story.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 4: Two of a Kind

Hey, everyone. Finley here. Now that you've seen how my friend Arthur's day has been going, I guess now is the point when I tell you how my life's been going. I know you might be wondering where I went after I left Inkopolis Square, but I'll get to that later. For now, I'll start at about a year ago.

(Oh, and...uh...cue flashback...)

It was a nice day, and I was planning to head over to see the Squid Sisters at their apartment after competing in some Turf Wars. While on the way there, Callie called me.

"Hey, Fin," she said with a hint of excitement.

"Hey," I said. "Good timing. I'm planning to come over to your place. Is that cool?"

"Sure! That's actually why I called. I'm here, and I could use some company."

"Didn't you have a film shoot today?"

"It was canceled, and I have the rest of the day off today."

"Is Marie there, too?"

She sighed. "No...she's busy with another shoot...and I've been here for a while, and now, I'm bored..."

"Oh...well, I'm almost there. Maybe we could find something to do."

"I hope so. See you in a little."

"Okay," I said as we hung up.

I could tell that she was kinda upset, and I knew it was because of Marie's absence. This kind of thing has been happening since about nine months ago. That was when the last Splatfest was held, and it had the theme of who's better: Callie or Marie. (And I still can't believe whoever organized the theme went there...) After the Splatfest was over, their careers made their lives busier than normal. They both got opportunities to appear on several shows, and their schedules got packed. It sounds nice and everything, but the problem was that they were so busy working on other things that they barely had much time to see each other. They had always done everything together, but now, their work was kinda pulling them apart. I guess you can say that their rise to stardom was a bit of a hollow victory.

Although it did take a while, I tried to learn their schedules and balance out times when I can check up on them. They may have seemed to look happy about where they are in life, but I could tell that they still missed each other. As a good boyfriend to Callie and a good best friend to Marie, I always tried to make sure that they had somebody to talk to if they had something on their minds. (Their coworkers tried to help, too, but the girls felt a bit more comfortable talking to me.) Usually, I would ask to see if either one wanted me to go see her. It worked out so I could see each one at least two times a week, but this made things awkward for me when trying to leave without telling Amy and Arthur where I'm going. Somehow, I think I made it work without arousing suspicion.

Anyway, back to the present moment (or whatever moment in time this was...)

Once I got up to the Squid Sisters' apartment, I knocked on the door, and Callie welcomed me in. I could tell her spirits lifted a lot when she saw me because she hugged me a bit longer and tighter than normal and gave me a peck on the cheek. She wore her long black and pink hair in her normal bow behind her head with the ends dangling, a pink t-shirt, and dark capris.

"Everything alright?" I asked while hugging her back.

"Yeah..." she sighed. "I'm just glad to see you outside of a studio this time."

"Me, too."

"How was your day?"

"Good. I finally managed to splat fifteen people in one match today. And I scored the most points."

"Let me guess: Aerospray MG?"

"You know me so well!"

"Shooters are your main weapons, after all."

"But you have to admit that I'm getting better with a roller, right?"

"Eh...you could use more work..."

"But I learned from the queen herself."

Callie couldn't help but giggle. "Fair enough."

"Well, enough about me. How was your day? You said the film shooting got canceled?"

"Yeah," she said. "There was a little accident with a light, and it caused the entire building we were filming in to lose power. The director and producer were _not_ happy. So, they canceled the shoot and said we could leave for the day, and they'll let us know when we could come back to finish it."

"Well, at least you get some extra time off."

"Yeah, but it gets kinda...well...overwhelming..."

"I bet it does..."

"And with me being so busy, I can't really see you or Marie often anymore, and I get kinda-"

"Lonely...?" I guessed.

She nodded sadly. "I just missed Marie going to shoot her new show. How do you think she'll do?"

"Knowing her, she'll be nervous but somehow keep it hidden from anyone else. But I bet she'll be fine."

"Yeah...she might..."

Callie started to look a little more down. She really missed having her cousin (and best friend) being around. And I knew that even at this moment, Marie probably felt the same way. They saw each other ever so rarely now. I thought of something to try to lift her spirits back up.

"Hey, Callie?" I asked.

She looked up at me.

"Why don't we go out and see if we can pay Marie a little surprise visit? I feel like she might like that."

A smile came on her face.

"Really?" she said. "You think that she would?"

"I'm positive. Trust me, she misses seeing you as much as you miss her."

Callie then got up with her normal energy.

"Alright," she declared. "Then, let's go see her!"

"That's the energetic squid girl I know and love!" I said while standing up.

"Aww...Fin..." she said sweetly while putting her arms around me and gave me a small kiss. (That never ceases to make my hearts jump for joy...)

"Come on," I said. "Let's go see her."

Once Callie got her boots, beanie, and sunglasses on, we went out hand-in-hand to see Marie.

* * *

While on the way there, Callie and I tried not to bring much attention to ourselves. Luckily for us, Marie told me where she was filming, and we could get there by a short bus trip. Instead, Callie wanted to walk both for exercise and to enjoy the day (and enjoy each other's company). Soon, we suddenly heard a male voice asking for help in an alley.

"Hey!" the voice shouted. "Is anyone there?!"

"That voice sounds familiar..." I said.

"W-Who's there?" Callie asked nervously.

"Octoling in distress here! Help me!" the voice yelled.

" _Octoling_?!" we said in disbelief. We hurried into the alley and saw a small octopus with one of his eight limbs pinned under a sewer grate.

"AH! This hurts!" he exclaimed as he tried to pull it out. We then realized who it was.

"Octave?!" we said in astonishment. He froze and turned to us.

"Finley?! Callie?!" he said in surprise.

"Hang on, let's get you out from there," Callie said. I grabbed the grate and lifted it up and Callie pulled him out. Once I put the grate down, Octave changed back into his human form. He wore a black shirt with an unzipped red hoodie, black shorts, and Black Dakroniks shoes.

"Whew...thanks, guys," he said happily while rubbing one of his hair tentacles. "I owe you one."

"Good to see you again, Octave," Callie said nicely while giving him a small hug. "It's been a while."

"It does," I said while greeting him. "How's things?"

"Good," he said. "The valley is relatively quiet these days now that Octavio's gone."

"And it's all thanks to Agent 3!" Callie exclaimed while nudging me. I couldn't help but smile just a little.

"Yeah, but he did have some help after all..." Octave said while unsubtly pointing to himself.

"True," I agreed. "So, what are you doing here?"

"It's been so long since I last came here. So I thought 'why not come here to see what it's like when I'm not brainwashed?'"

"Oh...right...I forgot about that..."

"What are you guys up to anyway?"

"Visiting Marie. Wanna come with us?" Callie said. "I promise she won't bite."

"I can't knowing how you two treat each other..." I admitted.

"Sure," Octave said. "But if she somehow does bite me, I'm out..."

With that, Octave joined us the rest of the way. To try to not get too much attention, he put his hood over his tentacles. He told us that things were going pretty well in Octo Valley. He and his sister, Octavia, were keeping things in check as their race's society was advancing. Some Octarians began moving to another location known as Octo Canyon. Apparently, it was a very scenic spot and open enough for another generation of them to thrive. Unfortunately, most of the ones that moved there were ones that still followed under DJ Octavio and were still pretty bad.

"You don't suppose that they're planning something, do you?" I asked nervously.

"Here's a little fact about Octarians as a species," Octave said. "The Octarians that you fought are all just essentially living tentacles. They can't really reproduce naturally. They're severed from a host and engineered to work as a soldier which makes them fiercely loyal and obedient...and slightly brainless..."

"So they can't really think of a plan on their own?" Callie said. "But they're still dangerous?"

"Exactly."

"But what about you and the other Octolings?" I asked.

"We're born like you guys. We're the hosts. It's a good thing that our tentacles grow back, too."

"Oh, I get it," Callie and I said. We paused and gave the process a thought. I winced, and she shuddered in disgust.

"Biology of Octarians and Octolings..." he said. "Gross, a little disturbing, but educational..."

"Okay, so there's little to no chance that we might have to deal with them again," I said. "That's a relief."

"You said it," Callie agreed. "That reminds me. Octave, have you seen Cap'n Cuttlefish recently?"

"Yeah," he said. "He's still guarding Octavio in his snow globe. Sometimes, he asks us to watch over him if he needs to leave."

"Uh...you and your sister...?" I asked cautiously. He nodded. I knew I could trust Octave, but Octavia was a different story. She did help me out in the end, but I felt like she still had a grudge against Inklings despite that. I decided to brush it off as we continued walking.

* * *

Finally, we arrived in a studio building and let ourselves in.

"Alright, we're here," Callie said. "Now, where's her set...?"

"What is she filming anyway?" Octave asked.

"She told me that it's called 'Problem Solved: Studying with Marie'," I said. "She didn't tell me what it's about exactly, but she repeated what a commercial for it said: 'Tune in for a few study tips and a whole lot of procrastination!'"

"Well, she is pretty studious," Callie said.

"Makes sense that she would have a type of talk show, I guess."

We finally heard a bunch of people talking in a particular studio room. Cameras and lights pointed to a small table with a microphone and a book. The crew on set were still turning them off. Marie was sitting by the table patiently. She was wearing a dark-colored kimono that looked kinda nice on her.

"Alright, people!" the director said. "Good filming session today! We'll pick up on the next episode on Sunday! Marie, beautiful job as always."

"Thanks," she said with a sigh of relief. "See you on Sunday!"

She then went to a room with her name elegantly written on it.

"Come on, guys!" Callie said excitedly while pulling us along. She knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Marie called out.

"Your favorite cousin and two extra guests!" Callie said happily.

Marie opened the door, and her face lit up with joy when she saw us.

"Callie! Fin!" she exclaimed happily. She hugged Callie and me. "This is a surprise. What're you two doing here?"

"We came to visit you on set," I said. "Hope you didn't mind."

"Not at all! It's good to see you."

"Even me?" Octave said from behind me. He hid there so she wouldn't see him.

"Octave?" she said confusedly. "Didn't expect to see you again..."

"Did you miss me?"

"Meh..." she said nonchalantly. "Not much..."

"Don't lie, Marie, you did."

Marie couldn't help but smile a little.

"Okay, I guess I did a little bit..."

"Good to see you, Marie."

"You, too."

These two had an interesting relationship. One minute, they were at each other's throats, and the next minute, they don't mind seeing each other. I hope it stays like the latter for now at least.

"Wait a second," Marie said. "How could you be here, Callie? I thought you had work today, too."

"I did; it was cancelled today," she explained.

"How?"

"I'll tell you after you get changed."

"Oh, right," Marie said while looking at her clothes. "Be right back."

"Ooh, Marie! Can we see your dressing room?"

" _You,_ sure," she said. She then glared at me and Octave suspiciously. "You two, not a chance."

"What does that mean?" Octave said.

"It means we are NOT going into a girl's dressing room!" I exclaimed as I felt my face heat up.

"Why not?"

"She's changing, Octave! Show some respect and give her privacy!"

"It'll be easy for me to not look. I try not to look at her even when she's clothed."

"Hey! I look good with and without clothes!" Marie said annoyed.

(Granted, she was right...but I didn't _dare_ say that out loud...and you should quickly forget I said that...please?)

She paused for a second and blushed when she realized what she said. "Wait...uh...that didn't come out right..."

"So I guess you wouldn't mind if I went in and you proved me wrong?"

Marie gasped, growled ferociously, then reached out to grab him, but Callie held her back. Octave backed away in fear. I could tell that he knew he crossed a line.

"I seriously need to teach this eight-armed idiot some manners..." I thought. "He might get himself killed..."

"Calm down, Marie!" he said. "I was just kidding. We'll wait outside."

"You better!" Marie shouted angrily.

The two of us went outside of the set room.

"Not gonna lie, Fin," Octave said. "She scares me sometimes."

I stared at him unamused.

"What?"

"Hold still," I said. I moved over to him and slapped the back of his head.

"Ow! Why?!" he said as he rubbed his head.

"First, you know you deserved that. Second, there's a reason she's strongly opposed to what you said..."

"What is it? And how do you know?"

"Ugh, I'll tell you later..."

We waited in the lounge for what seemed like forever and soon got bored. Eventually, the girls came out. Marie wore her green hat, a white shirt with an unzipped green hoodie, a skirt with shorts underneath, and her boots.

"What took you two so long?" Octave said.

"It's been a while since we've seen each other, Octave," Marie said. "We were catching up."

"Fair enough," I said quickly to keep Octave from responding. "Can we go now?"

"Sure," the girls said.

"Great now, let's go." I walked around a corner, but I instantly collided with a girl walking around the same corner, and the two of us fell on the floor on top of each other.

"Ow..." she groaned.

"Sorry..." I said painfully. "That was my fault."

"No, it was mine! I'm so sorry!"

"Here. Let me help you up." I extended a hand to lift her, and my hearts each skipped a beat when I got a better look at her when she stood up. She was about my height, had brown skin, and wore glasses, a teal shirt with a white short-sleeve hoodie, and black boots. She also wore black and teal headphones around her neck. What really surprised me was her hair: three long black tentacles with teal at the ends and one short one in the front...and they had small suction cups on them...

The others looked at her with a frozen look of shock on their faces. I could tell that they had the same thought that I had.

This girl was an Octoling...

* * *

 ** _AN:_** **Gee...I wonder who Finley bumped into...**

 **We'll see more of her and her costar later. And how she will fit into this story will be kinda unexpected if I implement an idea I have for her. But keep an open mind because I'm trying to be more unique with this story but still follow the real events of the game's story.**

 **Hope you liked this chapter. See you next time!**


	5. Crush Course

_**AN:**_ **The next chapter is finally here! Hope you all enjoy it!**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 5: Crush Course

We continued staring in awe at the Octoling girl which led to a very long silence. The girl began shuffling uncomfortably then smiled awkwardly.

"Uh...h-hi...?" she said nervously to me.

I didn't realize that I was still holding her hand. Callie was the first to snap back to reality, and she brought me back by smacking my hand from the girl's.

"That's enough of that," she said. I glared at her with minor annoyance while rubbing my hand. She glared back at me as a warning to not bother to ask why she did that because I'll lose the argument.

The girl's multicolored eyes lit up, and she gasped. And when I say "multicolored", I mean it. They were silver with a bit of teal with reddish-pink pupils in the shape of a sideways eight. They looked like they were sparkling with joy.

"A-Are you...C-Callie from the Squid Sisters...?" she asked timidly. "A-And is that...M-Marie...?"

The cousins looked a little surprised to see that this Octoling new them as celebrities. They nodded. The girl covered her mouth and squealed a little.

"It's really you!" she said excitedly. "Holy carp! It really is! I'm such a big fan!"

They looked even more shocked, but they both smiled a little. I was still confused. How does she know them and how is she a fan?

"Oh...I'm too nervous...I can't ask..." she said while she covered her face with her hands. I noticed that her fingertips were teal colored as well. (Yes, finger _tips,_ not just nails.)

"What's wrong?" Callie asked.

"I...was...um...I...was gonna ask for an autograph..." she admitted. "From both of you..."

"That's it?" Marie said while her smile got bigger. "Sure!"

The girl squealed with joy as she pulled out a small notebook and pen from her shorts pocket. She handed them over almost dropping them.

"Who do we make these out to?" Callie said while writing first.

"Oh, right! I never introduced myself..." she said while giggling nervously. "My name's Marina..."

"Nice to meet you, Marina," Marie said happily. "By the way, if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here?"

"I just finished practicing a song with my friend. She's probably waiting for me to come back now."

"Well, don't let us keep you," I said uneasily, not knowing what else to do at the moment. "We were just leaving..."

"Right, and sorry again for bumping into you, uh...sorry, what's your name...?"

"Finley, or Fin for short."

"Sorry, Fin..." she said while looking down in shame a little.

"H-Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. It's no trouble."

"Well, okay...I gotta go," Marina said while giving a small smile and turning to leave. "I hope we'll see each other again! It was great meeting all of you!"

"See ya!" we all said with a wave...except Octave. He had strangely gone quiet as soon as we saw Marina.

"Octave, you okay?" I asked. As I looked at him, he had had a dopey grin on his face, his tongue was hanging out, and he was staring dreamily (and blankly) in the direction Marina went.

"Oh...I'm great..." he said slowly in a daze. He suddenly shook his head and cleared his throat. "Whoa! What just happened?!"

"Uh-oh..." the girls said while giggling. I couldn't help but smile. We all knew what happened and decided to have some fun with it.

"Let's examine the patient, shall we?" I said to the cousins.

"Yes, Dr. Splatterson," they said seeing where I was going with this.

We began to overexaggerate "examining" him (We just looked around him a lot).

"Hmm...dazed stare...hanging tongue...silly smile..." I muttered.

"Did you see the millions of hearts around his head?" Marie said.

"Or that his eyes changed into heart shapes?" Callie added.

"Wait, what?!" Octave said in surprise. "Seriously, guys, what's happening to me?!"

"Hmm..." Marie said. "Doctor, what's your diagnosis?"

"It's worse than I thought. Octave has contracted a very well-known, common, and debilitating illness," I said.

"ILLNESS?!" Octave said in shock.

"I'm a afraid so...Octave, my friend..." I said as I rested a hand on his shoulder as seriously as I could. "You are lovesick."

The Squid Sisters and I burst into laughter as Octave deadpanned.

""Lovesick'?" he said with a smirk. "Really, guys? You can't be serious."

"Octave, it's _so_ obvious!" Callie said while still laughing.

"You have a huge crush on Marina!" Marie said while also laughing.

"I do not!" he said while folding his arms. His face was turning red, and he looked away from us.

"Sorry, dude," I said while wiping a tear from my eye. "Heh, you were so out of it. I don't think you even told her your name, either."

"Aw, man..." he said disappointedly. The rest of us continued laughing a little. He was less than amused now."Oh, grow up! That's not funny!"

"We're sorry, Octave," Callie said while still giggling. "But it's just so cute!"

"Can we just go, please...?" he groaned hopelessly.

"Alright, sure," Marie sighed with a small grin.

We all left with intentions to go to Inkopolis Square.

Something was bothering me just a little though. For some inexplicable reason, I felt as though I should know who Marina is. She looked like someone very faintly familiar to me, but I just couldn't put a tentacle on it. I brushed it off assuming that maybe she had that kind of face.

* * *

At this point in time, Inkopolis Square was still a bit new for a hangout spot, but there were still a few Inklings and Jellyfish around hanging out with each other. Deca Tower was just starting to hold Turf Wars, too.

By the time we got there, we started taking in the new sites.

"Now, let's see what the Square has to offer..." I said.

"It looks pretty fresh so far," Callie said.

"What do you guys want to see first?"

"Shoe store!" Callie said.

"Clothes store!" Marie said.

"Hat Store!" Octave said.

"Okay, I see where this is going..." I said. "Split up in pairs and meet at the Crust Bucket in...how's three hours?"

"That sounds good," they agreed.

"I can go with Fin if you two still want to catch up some more," Octave offered.

"Aw...that's sweet, Octave," Callie said.

"What can I say? I have a heart of gold."

"What are the other two made of?" I asked.

"Diamond and platinum." I facepalmed in regret but still started laughing.

"Hardy har har...very funny..." Marie said with a sarcastic smirk.

He and I then left the girls and went into Headspace, the hat shop. Octave told me that he wanted something to keep his tentacles under wraps so no one sees that he's an Octoling. And he was tired of wearing his hood.

"Why do you want to keep that a secret?" I asked.

"I feel like I wouldn't be welcome if people saw me," he said.

"Dude, we just saw another Octoling, and she wasn't even hiding her hair."

"I know, but maybe she hasn't had to deal with being taught what Inklings think of us."

"Maybe, but remember, most people our age don't even remember the history between our races. That whole war was basically forgotten to us, but that's because nobody teaches it anymore. Considering who your grandpa is, it makes sense that you'd be a bit nervous."

"Don't say that too loud..." he said through his teeth.

"Sorry...but you get my point, right?"

He nodded. "I get it. But...I just...don't feel ready to make myself known yet..."

"I understand. I'm just saying give it a try when your ready."

"Mmm..."

"Alright, if it bothers you that much, I'll get whatever hat you choose."

"Really?"

"Sure. Anything for a friend."

He smiled and began looking for a good hat. He became interested in a red knit hat with black stripes and a little black puffball on top. He tried it on and pushed his hair tentacles in it. They were completely covered.

"Hey, that looks nice!" I said. "It does the job and goes with your clothes. It looks like it's the last one, too."

"Yeah, but how much is it?" he asked.

"Why do you care? I'm the one paying for it."

"Oh, right. Well, I like it, and I'll take it."

After I bought the hat, I asked Octave if he wanted to try out Turf Wars. He was a little anxious about it, but once I explained what happens in it, he gladly wanted to complete in one. We stood outside of Ammo Knights.

"Now, the problem is that you don't have a weapon or an ink tank," I said. "But you can borrow mine if you want."

"Actually, you're half right," he said while pulling out a shooter. It was and Octoshot (which was essentially an Octoling version of a Splattershot).

"Where'd you get that?"

"I was a...'soldier', remember? Even though I'm not under mind-control anymore, that doesn't mean I'm gonna give this up."

"Nice. Now, all you need is a tank...I can get you one, though."

"In there?"

"Yep. They're really cheap, but they're well-made."

"Line's kinda long, don't you think...?"

He was right. There was big line of Inklings lined up by the counter with new weapons to purchase.

"Yeah, uh, it's gonna take a while..." I groaned.

"You know what? I can wait. You can start without me."

"I can't just leave you."

"I'm not Callie, but I appreciate the thought."

"Okay, now, I can leave you."

"Could I borrow some coins to buy it...?"

"Ugh...fine, but you owe me for that and the hat, too."

"I'll pay you back."

"Why do I doubt that...?"

He shrugged as I handed him the coins for the tank and went into Ammo Knights. I smirked and walked over to a ramp and sat on a ledge next to it for about twenty minutes. Suddenly, I saw my other friends, Amy and Arthur, walking toward the tower. Amy was holding her Splat Roller.

"Hey, Amy! Arthur!" I called out while waving to them.

They saw me and came to greet me.

"Hey, Fin, what's up?" Arthur said.

"Not much," I said. "Just getting to know Inkopolis Square with some other friends of mine. What about you guys?"

"Same thing," Amy said. "I heard that this was a new spot for Turf Wars, and I wanted to see it for myself."

"I just came to see what was here," Arthur said. "I feel like I'm probably gonna be coming here more often."

"Nice," I said.

"What're you up to now, Fin?"

"Just waiting for a friend to come out of Ammo Knights. He was gonna compete in a Turf War, and I wanted to help him out a little."

"Is it his first time doing it or something?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, he's...uh...new..."

"Can I compete with you guys?"

"Sure. I could introduce you guys to him."

On cue, Octave came out with an ink tank on his back.

"There he is now."

Octave came over to us but got a bit startled when he saw the siblings.

"Oh, uh, hi," he said nervously.

I got down from the ledge.

"Guys, I'd like you to meet my good friend: Octave," I said. "Octave, these are my other good friends: Amy and her brother Arthur."

"Nice to meet you," they said nicely.

"You, too," he said.

"Amy's agreed to join us in a Turf War," I said. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready. I got my tank. But what about...uh, Arthur, right?"

"Yeah," he said. "And thanks for the offer, but I'm not really interested in Turf Wars. I'll cheer you guys on unless you guys are separated and go against each other."

"Wait a minute. What?!"

"Oh, right. I almost forgot about that..." I admitted. "The team matchmaking is kinda random, but I'm sure it'll be fine. Let's just see what happens."

"Yeah, let's do this!" Amy cheered.

We made our way over to the tower with Amy enthusiastically leading the way.

"Doesn't she remind you of someone...?" Octave said in my ear.

"Yeah, and her favorite weapon is the roller, too," I said.

When we got inside, we waited for more players to join so that we can compete. Finally, five more people came.

"Hey, it's you again," one girl said to Octave. Honestly, this girl kinda stuck out in comparison to the rest of the Inklings in the room. She was shorter, had short white and pink tentacle hair, and wore a white shirt, black shorts, a black cap facing backwards, and a pair of black athletic shoes. She held a pair of shooters in her hands which I had not seen before.

"Oh, hey," he said in response. "I didn't know you're competing in this, too."

"Heck yeah!"

"Dude, who's that?" I whispered. He shrugged. "Well, what's she holding?"

"I asked her about them when I was waiting for my tank. They're called Splat Dualies. They're shooters for both hands."

"Hmm...interesting..."

* * *

Once we got sent to the stage for the battle, I was caught off-guard when we ended up in the Reef. It was another hang out spot with a bunch of boutique shops and stuff. Today, it was cleared for the Turf Wars that took place here.

Octave and I were on a green team while the girl with the dualies and Amy were on the opposing pink team. I could tell that Octave was a bit nervous because he was shifting uncomfortably.

"Calm down, Octave," I said reassuringly. "It'll be fun, and I'll help you the whole way."

"READY?" an automated voice announced. "GO!"

Our teams took off trying to cover as much turf as possible.

"This isn't too bad, I guess!" Octave called out to me.

"It just started!" I called back. "The hard part is when we meet with the other team in the middle of the stage! That's when things get crazy!"

"What do you mean?" At that moment, I saw someone on the opposing side poised to ambush him.

"On your left!" I yelled.

He yelled and fired on his left at a pink Inkling boy and splatted him.

"Oops! Is he alright?!" Octave asked worriedly. He then got splatted by Amy when she steamrolled over him. I could've sworn I heard him yell "OW!" when he got hit.

"One down," Amy said while glancing in my direction with a grin. "One more to go..."

"He'll figure out that we respawn..." I thought. I took off running to try to avoid Amy and her roller. I had my Aerospray MG with me and set a Suction Bomb around the corner of a wall I ran past.

"Don't follow me!" I warned.

"I'm not falling for-AAH!" she yelped when she got splatted by the bomb.

"I warned ya," I chuckled. I was cut off when a few shots of pink ink flew by my head. "Uh-oh..."

"Heads up, !" the girl with the dualies said.

I fired at her, but she did a couple of small rolls on the ground avoiding most of my shots. After the second roll, she focused her fire on me, and I managed to wear her down enough that I splatted her. Unfortunately, she splatted me at the same time.

When I respawned, I squid-jumped to one of my teammates and continued battling. Occasionally, I would see Octave spraying more ink around and splatting other opponents. He looked like he was enjoying himself as I saw him smiling during the whole battle.

Soon, we all heard the whistle that signified that the battle was over. We all went back to the lobby for the results.

Judd came up while accompanied by his new friend...and I guess you could call "apprentice"...Li'l Judd to judge the results on a big screen. Li'l Judd is somewhat of a mystery to many of us because we had no clue where he came from. He looks almost exactly like big Judd, but he's smaller and his tuxedo-patterned fur was lighter. Many people always say that he's totally adorable. They're right, of course, but I have a nagging suspicion that he's more devious than people think. (It's always the cute ones that are the most dangerous, you know. Just ask the Squid Sisters; they're living proof when they get mad...)

Anyway, the cats finished their judging and put their paws behind their backs. Judd quickly held up a green flag while Li'l Judd fell backward pretending to faint.

"Green team wins!" Judd announced. The percentages onscreen showed 45.5% for green and 45.4% for pink. We managed to win by the most slim chance.

Octave, the other two team members, and I celebrated with high-fives all around at our victory. The other team groaned in defeat and disappointment.

"Hey, guys," Octave called out to them. "Don't look so down. That was a fun battle."

"Easy for you to say!" Amy shouted. "That's the most disappointing way to lose ever!"

"Really?"

"You have no idea how emotional that is to see," I said while laughing. "That kind of percentage can be both so satisfying and so disappointing."

"You guys got lucky," the other girl said with hands on her hips. She slightly jumped in realization of something, and she suddenly came up to me and stared at me in the eyes. I had that kind of thing happen before, and I had an idea of what was gonna happen next.

"Yo! Marina was right!" she said as she looked at me. "You _do_ have red eyes. That's so cool!" (See? I called it.)

"Marina?" I asked. "You mean that octopus girl with the long black and teal hair that we met earlier?"

"Yep, that's her!"

"And you are...?"

"Oh, right! I'm Pearl! Nice to meet ya. I'm a friend of Marina's. She told me that she bumped into a boy with red eyes earlier today. I didn't really think I'd meet you in person."

"Okay, well, I'm Finley. You can just call me Fin."

"And I'm Octave," Octave said. A small devious smile creeped on Pearl's face as she saw Octave more clearly.

"So, _you're_ the guy who stared at her stupidly!" she said.

"W-Wha...?"

I stifled a laugh.

"Yeah...that's him," I said while covering my mouth.

"Why me...?" Octave groaned as he hung his head.

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ **Hope you liked this chapter! See you in the next one! Review if you like.**

 **{Oh, yeah. If you have a Switch and love playing Splatoon 2, if you want, PM me your friend code, and I'll send you mine in response. We could play together online (if the internet doesn't mess up or something...). Again, this is completely optional; you don't have to do it if you're not interested. I'll be named...well 'Finley', of course.}**


	6. Last Memory

_**AN:**_ **FINALLY! The end of the semester is here and finals are over (by the time this goes up, anyway). And after putting this off for what seemed like forever to all of us, here is the next chapter!**

 **Hope you all enjoy it!**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 6: Last Memory

After we left the tower, Arthur told Amy that they needed to head to another store to get some materials for a project that he was working on. After a brief argument between them (because Amy didn't want to leave on a loss), the two finally left. As Octave and I tried to get better acquainted with her, Pearl noticed someone behind us.

"YO! MARINA!" she yelled while waving frantically. "LOOK WHO I FOUND!"

After getting the ringing in our ears to stop (seriously, she was kinda loud), Octave and I looked around to see Marina coming toward us. I assumed that she showed up some time during the match. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief when she approached us.

"There you are!" she exclaimed. "Where were you?!"

"Getting my splat on with my new weapons," Pearl said smirking while twirling the Dualies in her hands. Marina's eyes widened in fear.

"New weapons that are very-!"

Suddenly, the small shooters sparked and fell apart into many pieces onto the ground. We all exchanged looks between each other and the weapon bits.

"...very fragile and unstable..." Marina finished miserably.

"Whoops..." Pearl said sheepishly. "Guess Sheldon's going back to the drawing board...heh, heh..."

Marina shook her head and groaned. She then took notice of us.

"Oh! It's you guys!" she said happily. "Fin and...uh...sorry...I don't think I caught your name."

Octave was blushing furiously as he tried to speak, but, unfortunately, no words came out. I decided to help him out this time.

"You'll have to excuse my friend. He's shy," I said. "And his name's Octave."

"Okay, well, it's good to see you guys again."

"Likewise. Also, I take it that you and Pearl are friends?"

"Friends _and_ partners in music!" Pearl said.

"R-R-Really?" Octave stuttered. (At least he said _something_.)

"Oh, yeah. Marina, didn't you mention that you two just finished practicing a song?" I asked.

"Yep, it was one of our first ones for a concert we have coming up," Marina said. "I sing and work turntables while Pearl usually raps."

"What's your group name?"

"Off the Hook!" the girls said simultaneously.

"Nice!" Octave and I said while nodding approvingly.

"So, what're you two gonna do now?" I asked.

"Well, I _was_ gonna keep testing these weapons for Sheldon," Pearl said as she looked down at the weapon remains, "but..."

"Those were called Splat Dualies, right?"

"Yeah. Sheldon let me test them to see if they were useful in a real Turf War. But they were prototypes..."

"I'm just surprised that they lasted as long as they did. You're actually pretty good with those." (Although, I'd honestly like to know how and why Sheldon asked _her_ to test them...and I really should ask him what was he thinking...)

"Thanks. Although, I think this might be the last time I test these. I'm starting to think that they might just fall apart on me while mid-battle. Or end up splatting _me_ instead."

I tried to imagine that last part happening, and I chuckled at the thought.

"Now, that'd be something," I said. Pearl rolled her eyes.

"Anyway," Marina said. "What were you two up to? And where are the Squi-?"

"Wait, not too loud!" I whispered while motioning for her to stop. She quickly covered her mouth.

"W-What's the matter?" she whispered back.

"I think it'd be best if people don't know or hear that I know them."

"That's...actually pretty smart..." Pearl said.

"And it makes sense considering these." I pointed to my eyes. "I get enough attention for them."

"Well, I only told Pearl that you were with them. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, I guess. But don't tell anyone else, okay?"

"I promise," Pearl said.

"Me, too," Marina added. "But to make sure..."

What she did next left me speechless. She made three crosses over her chest.

"Crossing all three of your hearts?" Pearl said. "Come on, Marina. Again?"

"A promise is a promise, Pearlie," she said with a smile.

As she did, I still had a gut feeling that Marina seemed so familiar. It felt as if I should know who she is already, but the memory of her got dimmer. And her doing that gesture really made me start trying to remember if I had met her or someone like her before.

"Uh...Fin...?" Marina said uneasily. I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Oh...uh, sorry about that," I said . "I kinda had a moment of deep thinking. What's up?"

"Um, now that you're out of your thoughts, could you...uh...do something about him..."

She pointed to Octave who apparently also noticed the gesture that she made. However, he hadn't lifted his gaze and was still staring at her-

...Well, uh, let's just say, he's lucky that she was nice enough to not hit him for staring too long. (Though, I feel like she probably shouldn't have worn such a low-cut shirt to begin with...but hey, what do I know about fashion?) Pearl, on the other hand, wasn't too forgiving...

"I could smack him, if you want?" Pearl offered. She raised her hand to do so, but I grabbed her wrist.

" _That_ won't be necessary..." I said as I gently lowered it. "Octave! Eyes! Up! Move! Now!"

My broken speech didn't faze him, forcing me to physically moved his head up to eye-level with Marina.

As soon as he realized what he had been doing, he pulled his hat over his eyes as his face turned even more red.

"I'M SO SORRY!" he exclaimed as he took off running.

"Octave, wait!" I called out to him. But he was already long gone.

"Is he alright?" Marina asked worriedly. "I'm not angry at him or anything for doing that."

The teal ends of her hair tentacles started turning a light pink as she zipped up her hoodie completely and folded her arms.

"O-Okay, maybe a little uncomfortable...but not mad."

"Like I said, he's shy. He's kinda new to the city, and I think meeting so many people probably got to him. And being one of a few octopi in a city of squids might be a bit unnerving..."

"I know how that feels..."

"HOLD UP!" Pearl exclaimed. "He's an octopus like Marina?!"

So much for keeping that a secret...

"Yeah, he is," I said. "He really wanted to keep his hair tentacles hidden so no one would notice."

"Carp! Why did I say that?!" I thought while mentally kicking myself. "Wait. Actually, on second thought, if Marina is one, too, she shouldn't mind. And Pearl seems pretty close with her. But, still, I'd better watch that..."

"Why would he want to hide them?" Marina asked. "He should be able to express himself if he wants to. It's not like anyone would treat him too differently."

"I told him that, but he said that he's not ready to make himself known yet. It's also because of how he was brought up."

Marina looked in the direction that Octave ran with concern.

"I feel sorry for him," she said. "I wish I could help him. One octopus to another."

"I think he might like that, Marina," I said. "Let me talk to him first to see if he's alright."

"You seem like a nice squid, Fin," Pearl said. "Looking out for your love-struck friend."

"Love-struck?" Marina asked.

"Er, she's joking," I said quickly. I glared at Pearl with annoyance, and she returned a smirk. "I gotta go now. I'll see you two later, I guess."

I walked away in search of Octave with Pearl and Marina saying their goodbyes.

"Still think Octave's kinda cute, Marina?" I overheard Pearl say jokingly. "Makes sense now that we know for sure that he's an octopus."

"Oh, be quiet, Pearl..." Marina said sounding a bit embarrassed.

I couldn't help but smile a little.

"He's probably got a shot at her," I thought. "After all, she didn't deny it."

Luckily in my search, I didn't have to go far because he sat at a table with the Squid Sisters. When I got there, Callie and Marie were looking at him with concern as he put his head down on the table and groaned in anguish. I sat down in the chair next to him.

"Oh...boy..." I said. "Octave, I think you're overreacting just a little..."

He continued groaning in response.

"Fin," Marie said. "Can you explain to us _what_ just happened?!"

"Why's Octave so upset?!" Callie asked worriedly.

"We ran into Marina again...and, well...he's embarrassed that he stared a bit too long at her..."

"How's that a big deal?" Callie asked.

"Uh..."

Octave shot up and covered my mouth before I had a chance to explain. He shook his head, silently pleaded with me not to tell them.

"Actually, you know what?" I said. "I think it's probably best if we don't talk about what happened and move on. Okay?"

"He crashed and burned, didn't he?" Marie said.

"You could say that...now, let's ignore any extra input on the matter and just escort Octave back home..."

She scowled at me in response.

"Home, please," Octave said. "It's been a long day..."

"That reminds me," Callie said. "I've been so busy that I haven't visited gramps for a while. Can I go with you to see him?"

"I don't see why not."

"How about you, Marie?" I asked.

"Actually, I saw him a last week," she said. "He did say that he wanted to see Callie, too."

"We'd better hurry then," Callie said excitedly. "I don't want to keep him waiting."

"Alright, let's go," I said while standing up. However, Marie gently pulled my sleeve to hold me back.

"Um, actually, Fin," she said. "Can I talk to you about something, please?"

"Sure, what's wrong?"

"This might take a while..." she said while looking at Callie and Octave. "You two go ahead. We'll catch up."

"Uh...okay..." Callie said confusedly. She and Octave turned to leave while waving back at us. Marie's attention focused on me again, and I could tell from her uneasy expression that she had a lot on her mind.

"Okay, what's the matter?" I asked.

"Fin, can I ask you something?" she said. "And be honest about your answer."

"What is it?"

"Do you think Callie's happy?"

"No, she's not."

"What?!"

"She has the bright smile, but really, she's crying on the inside."

"Oh..." Marie suddenly stopped looking sad and looked at me with her unamused glare. "You're just messing with me again, aren't you?"

I smiled lightly earning an exasperated sigh from her.

"Knock it off, Fin," she said with hands on her hips. "I'm being serious."

"Calm down, Marie. I'm just joking. In all seriousness, she seemed fine to me. Why do you ask?"

"I feel like...I don't know...like-"

"She's not herself...or something?" I finished.

"Sort of...I mean, she's still as energetic as ever, but...she's seems like she's enjoying herself a bit more than I am..."

"What do you mean?"

"She told me about all the stuff she's doing now, and it's stuff that she's dreamed of doing since she was little...but I wonder if she's really enjoying it or just telling me..."

"You mean like she's telling you that she's happy with her work, but you think she's really not?"

"Yeah. And she just told me that so I don't worry about her..."

"Well, there have been a few times where she's had a bad day at work and needed some comfort. Remember last month with one of her costars?"

"Yeah. Good thing that that girl got fired eventually. She was so annoying..."

"But, anyway, if you're worried about her not missing you or something, you might be happy to hear that she misses you just as much as you miss her."

"I'm honestly starting to think that she doesn't. We still live in the same apartment that we moved into when we first came to Inkopolis, but there have been times when Callie doesn't come home at all."

Marie's eyes then grew wide, and she looked at me with suspicion.

"Hey..." she said slowly as if she has a possible explanation.

"W-What?" I said uneasily.

"You know, you _are_ her boyfriend who lives pretty close to us," she said. "You're not inviting her to 'spend the night' at your place sometimes, are you?"

"What are you implying...?"

She leaned in closer so that she was staring into my eyes attempting to intimidate me. I finally got the idea, and my face started warming up.

"OH, NO! Now, wait just a minute!" I exclaimed in defense. "Y-You know what kind of squid I am! I-I wouldn't even think of-!"

"Gotcha!" Marie said while smiling playfully. "I'm just kidding. I know you wouldn't. Besides, we established that rule already."

"And yet, I wonder why _she's_ still single..." I thought. "She's got a lovely personality..."

"Well..." I admitted. "Actually, I've offered to have her come hang out with me to have someone to talk to if you're not back yet...but she's never spent the entire night."

"Never?"

"No. But now that you mention that sometimes she never comes home, I've noticed that on several occasions, she's never popped into my apartment to say 'hi'. You might be on to something. I find that a little odd."

"How's that odd?"

"If she comes home and you aren't back, she always drops by my place to see what I'm up to and tell me about her day. But, lately she hasn't been doing that so much."

"See? There might be something going on that she doesn't want to talk about or doesn't want us to worry about. You should be a better boyfriend. Ask her if there's anything wrong."

I scowled at her. (Now, that was painful.)

"Uncalled for," I said. "And here's my question. Why don't you be try to be a better-?"

I covered my mouth to stop myself from going any further. I shouldn't have said that because Marie didn't take the question lightly. She genuinely looked shocked and heartbroken when I said that, and I immediately regretted my words.

"No, wait," I said. "I take that back. I'm really sorry. That wasn't necessary, and I didn't mean it."

Marie was silent. I felt terrible for saying that because it was something she felt was a problem. She told me before that she had a small feeling that her final Splatfest victory and her own ego kinda forced her and Callie apart. She felt like Callie would have fewer reasons to come back home from her work after dealing with her sass and her rising popularity. I kept telling her that what she was thinking wasn't the case, but she still had her doubts about it.

"Maybe you're right," she said in a miserable tone. "I probably should be..."

"Marie, I didn't mean to say that," I said. "You're an awesome cousin and act like the coolest sister to Callie. She's lucky to have you look out for her, and you're lucky to have her."

Marie looked down at the table.

"I really just miss her, Fin. And I miss how things were before that stupid Splatfest."

"Hey, don't worry. She misses you as much as you miss her. She told me herself. Besides, nobody said that being famous didn't have some drawbacks."

"Nobody told us that before. I wish someone did."

"I've told you that _twice_ already. So, what? I'm 'nobody'?"

"Ha, Ha, you're hilarious..." she said dryly while rolling her eyes. However, a faint grin came on her face. I never fail to make her do that whenever she's feeling down. "You know what, Fin?"

"What is it?"

"I think you might be right. I might be overthinking things and felt upset about missing her. Talking about it made me feel a little better. Thanks."

"That's what I'm here for," I said with a grin. "But hey, you two have the same problem right now. Whenever you two get a chance to talk more, you should tell her how you feel. I'm positive that she'll understand."

"I hope so."

"What do you say we go see her and Octave in Octo Valley? They're probably waiting for us at this point."

"You can go."

"Really? You're not going?"

"This schedule of mine is just ridiculous..."

"Oh, okay. Well, good luck with that. Hope you two work things out."

"Callie's lucky to have you, you know. I wish I could meet someone as nice as you," she said.

"Nice, sure. But probably not as good-looking," I joked.

"You're a good 2.5 on the cuteness scale in my opinion..."

"Um, ouch! I was joking!"

"So was I!" she laughed. "You're so easily set off!"

I couldn't resist laughing along. This was just how our relationship went. She makes jokes at my expense, and I return the favor. And we were happy to understand that neither one of us mean whatever "insult" we say to each other. It's weird, but it works for us.

I said goodbye to her and went to Octo Valley to find the others.

* * *

Once I got there, I found myself a mile away from Cap'n Cuttlefish's cabin where we held DJ Octavio. I super-jumped there and found Octave and Callie standing with each other.

"Hey, guys!" I said as I landed behind them. They jumped in surprise. "What did I miss?"

"Not much," Octave said. "Except-"

"There's something going on with one of these zapfish," Callie interrupted. "It keeps spraying water up here."

A spurt of water shot over the ledge where the zapfish tank was.

"I know one zapfish that does that, and he usually aims the water at my face," I said as I realized who it was. I looked over the ledge and almost got hit by another stream of water.

"Sparky?" I said in astonishment. My unique little zapfish friend's eyes lit up with happiness as he smiled. He shot out of the tank, and unfortunately for me, I wasn't ready to catch him. Instead, he overshot me, and his normally zig-zagging whiskers loosened and wrapped around the tentacle topknot on my head. Instantly, he unintentionally electrocuted me, but this felt millions of times more painful (not to mention, longer) than any other time that he's done it.

Once he stopped, he hopped back into the water.

"Boy, that had to hurt..." Octave groaned while wincing.

"Omigosh, Fin, are you okay?!" Callie said worriedly as she gently held my face. She looked angrily at Sparky. "Bad zapfish!"

Sparky made an ashamed gurgling sound.

"Don't worry..." I coughed. "At least I'm still in one piece..."

"Your hair tentacle band isn't..." Octave said. He showed me the charred, smoking remains of the band that kept my tentacles up.

"Oh...wow..." I said. "At least now I know what a fried squid feels like..."

"You look different with your hair spiked up like that," Callie said. She then hugged gently me (which caused me to wince from the burning sensation) and brushed my tentacles back a little. "But still as cute as ever."

"Take that, Marie," I thought.

"Aw...isn't that sweet?" a familiar voice sarcastically said. There with his permanent scowl was the big boss himself: DJ Octavio. He was still floating in the snow globe that we put him in when we beat him.

"Can't say it's a pleasure, Octavio..." I said.

"Someone's still salty about losing..." Callie said.

"I would've won if it weren't for you and that smart-mouthed friend of yours, pinky."

She blew a raspberry at him.

Then Octavio's gaze shifted to Octave. He stared at him with disappoint rather than anger.

"And you..." he said in a low tone. "I expected more from you, Octave. How could you?"

Octave didn't look at him.

"You've had this coming..." Octave said in response.

"Hmm, well, how long do you think this will hold me?" Octavio asked.

"As long as needed."

"How about until someone breaks me out?"

"Really, Octavio?" I said. "Heh, who's gonna break you out? Most of your followers ditched you."

"That's what you think..."

"Huh?"

He then looked behind all of us.

Before I could acknowledge what was happening, I felt a sharp blow to my head and fell to the ground. As I lost consciousness, I heard the faint sound of Callie screaming and glass shattering.

Then everything went dark...

* * *

 _ **AN**_ _ **:**_ **Oooooh...things are getting serious (or as serious as they would be in this story.) I'm taking a creative approach to this story, but there will be enough differences in it that will make it more entertaining. (Honestly, I felt like the story in the game was good, but it could've been better. But isn't that what fanfiction writers are here for?)**

 **Next, chapter we'll see how Arthur's doing in the present day. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Review if you like.**

 **[By the way, how do you like the cover picture of Finley that I drew? That is his appearance for the rest of the story.]**


	7. Newly Realized Resolutions

_**AN:**_ **Here's the next chapter. Hope you all enjoy. Review if you like.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 7: Newly Realized Resolutions

Arthur here again. Now, we're going back to the present day or as I like to call it: the day I got a new job. And I'll tell you how I got hired after seeing a certain familiar Inkling soon after I was in an unfamiliar situation.

It all started when Amy woke me up.

"Arthur..." she whispered. "Wake up..."

I slightly opened an eye and saw her. She was still in her pajamas. I groaned and turned onto my other side in bed so that I wasn't facing her.

"Come on," she said a bit louder while gently shaking me. "I know you're not an early bird, but you gotta get up at some point."

"That's where you're wrong," I mumbled as I pulled my bed sheets over my head.

"Fine, have it your way."

She proceeded to steal my pillow from under my head and hit me with it...a lot...

"Okay, okay!" I exclaimed in annoyance. "I'm up...sheesh...just please stop doing that..."

She smiled with satisfaction.

"Do you really have to do that _every_ morning?" I yawned.

"Only if you sleep past noon," she said, "which is every morning, so...yep!"

I looked at my clock. It was already a quarter until one o'clock.

"Man...I must've been really tired..." I said while stretching.

"Well, duh!" Amy exclaimed. "You stayed up until three in the morning!"

"Not true. I stayed up until 2:30, and it's because I kept thinking about what happened yesterday."

"You mean with Fin and Marie?"

I nodded.

"Okay, I'm worried about Fin as much as you are, but I still doubt what you told me about Marie..."

"I told you what happened!" I said. "Stinger and Storm were chasing her for some reason, and I used those Splat Dualies to help her."

"And you went into some sewer grate and ended up in a canyon outside of the city..."

"Alright, I know how crazy it sounds, but that's how it happened."

"Okay," Amy said while shrugging. "If you say so..."

I rolled my eyes. She still didn't believe me.

"Well, to be fair, I was also thinking about something else," I admitted.

"What?" she asked.

"When I first used those weapons, I felt like I knew how to use them almost instantly. But I've never used a weapon against someone in my life..."

"How did it feel?"

"I can't describe how it felt exactly, but it was like a rush of energy just hit me. It made me wonder if that was how everyone felt while competing in a real battle."

"I can tell you from first-hand experience that it does. Did it feel bad to you or what?"

I shrugged. "It didn't feel bad. It just felt...natural..."

"Well, Turf Wars do play a big part in our culture and society. Maybe that's your natural instincts saying that you should join in on them."

"Wait...you mean, _compete_ in a real Turf War?!"

Amy nodded.

"Uh...I-I don't know..."

"Hey," she said. "You always complain about how so many people make fun of you for not competing in them. This could be your chance to get them to stop. You'll never know what'll happen unless you try."

"That's true..."

I gave it some thought and looked back to all of the times that people pointed out that I didn't compete in Turf Wars. It did kinda annoy me after a while, but I never competed in them because I was too afraid that I would mess up or something. They were serious things to some people, and I was afraid that if my team lost, my "teammates" would pin the blame on me. I guess that's sorta why I just didn't bother to try them out.

However, after what happened yesterday, I finally discovered that shooting ink might be in my nature. I may have just been letting my anxieties get the better of me.

I finally made my decision.

"Okay," I said while standing up. "I think it's time for a change. Today, I'm gonna compete in a Turf War."

"Really?!" Amy said in astonishment. As I nodded, a big smile came on her face. "FINALLY!"

"And you're gonna force me to get through it."

"Uh, force?"

"In case I have second thoughts, pull me into the tower and get me ready for whatever happens next."

"Okay...I guess. Come on, let's get ready."

I put on my Retro Specs glasses and got dressed in my normal orange zip hoodie, red Hi-Horses, and loose capris. By the way, I wear the glasses for fashion (and because I agreed when Amy said that they suited me). I basically just wear the frames. Sounds weird, but believe me, there are weirder fashion styles that I've seen in the square.

When I finished, I sat on the couch in the living room waiting for Amy to get ready. She took a little longer than usual.

"Amy, what's taking so long?" I asked.

"Don't rush me," she said back. "I'm trying to pick a good hat for myself."

"Well, pick what you think will go well with what you're gonna wear."

She came out wearing some of her new clothes that she bought yesterday. She had a Red Tentatek t-shirt with a gray, long sleeve undershirt and Pro Trail boots with yellow laces. She also wore her normal black shorts with a yellow stripe on the sides.

She held two different hats...a yellow Bobble hat and a Yamagiri beanie with a zig-zag yellow and black pattern.

"Which one do you think will go better, Arthur?" she asked.

"Uh...the Bobble hat?" I said.

She then tossed the hat that I chose over her shoulder and put on the beanie.

"I _really_ should've seen that coming..." I thought. "She almost never asks for my opinion..."

"Now I'm ready!" Amy declared. "But you still need a weapon to use. Hmm...why not start with something easy? Like a Splatteshot."

"Actually, that's what I was gonna choose. It's pretty good for beginners."

She ran back to her room and got her Splat Roller and Splattershot and two tanks.

"Okay," I said. "We got our tanks, our weapons, and each other's backs, right?"

"Right!" Amy agreed.

"Are we forgetting anything?"

"Nope. I think we're good to go."

"Alright, then let's go."

As we left our place, I began to think of some of the possible events that might happen during the Turf War. What if Amy and I are on opposite teams? What if I'm up against a team that will utterly destroy me? What if the team I'm with is too serious?

"Well, I might as well go through with it," I thought. "Besides, I'm probably overthinking this like I usually do. A Turf War might be fun. But whatever the case, I just hope that I won't end up saying-"

* * *

"THIS WAS A MISTAKE!" I screamed internally as we reached Inkopolis Square. The whole concept of being in a Turf War for the first time in my life was completely changed when I spied Storm and Stinger. And, of course, the two of them were standing near the entrance area of Deca Tower. With Storm holding a Carbon Roller and Stinger holding a Heavy Splatling, they soon went into the tower.

"Okay..." Amy said when she saw them. "Maybe we should wait a little while, huh?"

I chose not to speak as I immediately tried to run away...but Amy held onto my hood.

"Don't quit now! You haven't even started! Besides, they'll probably get tired and want to take a break for a while. We'll go then."

I nodded.

As we walked near the entrance to the tower, I saw Marie standing in her normal spot.

"Amy! Look!" I said pointing to her. "She's right there!"

"Wha-?! Who?!" she said while looking where I was pointing. However, Marie had disappeared leaving me to point at the grate in the ground. Amy looked at me in annoyance.

"Um..." I said sheepishly. "I...just saw her..."

"Ugh..." she groaned. "I'm not battling with you if you're gonna start hallucinating..."

"I'm not hallucinating! And I'm not battling at all if you're not gonna believe me."

"Looks like neither of you are gonna have a choice," a familiar female voice said.

I then felt a hand grab my hood and harshly pull me backward. Amy had been pulled by the back of her shirt and was being dragged alongside me by another hand. We looked back to see that the twins were literally dragging us inside of the tower. We also didn't bother to try to escape their grasps because we knew it would be essentially useless. First, they were way stronger than us; and second, even if we escaped, they still probably would've come after us anyway. We seemed to be their favorites.

"W-What do you n-need us for?" I asked nervously. "And where'd you guys come from?!"

"We need two extra players to compete with," Stinger explained. "When we went out to find some and saw you, we knew that you two were the perfect volunteers."

"And when we saw that Splattershot in your hands," Storm continued. "We figured we could get an easy win."

Once we got into (what I guessed was) the room where we get ready for battle, the twins roughly set us down onto two empty spots in a line of other competitors and took their spots. Amy and I stood up and saw a button come in front of us. At this point, I was shaking like a nervous sea snail.

"Why...?" I whined internally. "Why now, of all times, did I have to be put in a Turf War with those two...?"

Amy rested a hand on my shoulder.

"You okay?" she asked with concern. "We can make a run for it now if you want."

I took a deep shaky breath and shook my head.

"I've gone this far...what's the point of backing out now?" I said. A small smile came on her face.

"That's a good way of looking at it. I just hope we're on the same team..."

"Me, too."

Amy pressed the button in front of her first. I pushed down my anxieties and pushed the button in front of me.

* * *

In a bright flash of light, all of us were taken to Starfish Mainstage. This place was a big concert stage that was often used for battles and musical performances. Being here brought back some memories of a concert that took place here a while back.

I looked down to see that I was on a light green respawn point. My hair tentacles had changed color to match it, too. I looked at my team and was relieved to see that Amy was with me.

"Good," she said when she saw me. "At least we're on the same team."

"Where are the twins?" I asked.

The other two members of our team (a girl with a Splat Charger and a boy with a Tri-Slosher) appeared next to us. I had a mixed reaction to seeing them. The good news was that neither one of the twins were on my team. The bad news was that if they weren't on my team, it meant that I was about to go against both of them...again.

"I just hope they aren't holding a grudge," I thought.

"Hey," the charger girl said to me. "Is it true that you almost splatted those two mean Inklings on the other side?"

"Y-Yeah..." I said.

"I think I heard them say something about getting payback. You might want to be careful around them."

Before I could even get a response in, I heard an announcer.

"READY?" it said. "GO!"

Everyone else on my team shouted "Booyah!" before rushing forward.

"Arthur, follow me!" Amy called to me. With nowhere else to go, I followed her by swimming in the trail of ink her roller left behind. When she stopped up on top of a ramp she sank into her squid form.

"Okay," I said. "S-So what's the game plan?"

"How about try to not to get splatted?" she said. "And spread ink like crazy?"

"Anything else...?"

"That's all I got...there's not much thought to Turf Wars if you're using a roller or a shooter..."

"Good to know...so, what? I just run out there and hold the trigger down?"

"Essentially, yes." She then took off running again.

"That was sarcasm! I didn't mean-!" She was already gone by that point.

With no other plan, a lack of helpful advice from my sister, and a set of twins most likely gunning for me, I did the only thing that I could. I made my way to the center area of the stage and kept spreading ink as much as I could. The opposing pink team of Stinger, Storm, another guy with an E-liter 4K charger, and a girl with a Blaster met us at the middle of the stage. Eventually, Storm must've seen me.

"Found him!" Storm exclaimed. Naturally, she started coming after me. "You're not getting away that easily!"

Suddenly, she slammed a big gadget on the ground, and a large pink cloud rose into the sky above us. It grew bigger and started raining down ink...and it was just my luck that the breeze started moving the cloud in my direction. Once I saw it, I realized that it was her Special weapon: the Ink Storm. (Now, you get where she got her nickname...)

I swam as fast as I could from her and the cloud, and she ran after me. Her roller is specifically made to be extra light so she had no trouble catching up with me. The cloud soon stopped pouring ink and dispersed, but she soon had me cornered. I got out of my ink and frantically threw two Burst Bombs at her...and both of them missed...

"Nice aim," she taunted as she steamrolled over me.

It's funny. Both Finley and Amy told me that being splatted for the first time feels like your mind is conscious while your entire body falls asleep, and you float for a short amount of time. They weren't wrong...

I felt my body again, and I stood up from the respawn point.

"Alright," I said. "Filing her under 'Avoid unless I WANT to be splatted'."

I moved out again seeing how everyone on my team was defending their turf. Before I kept shooting, I narrowly dodged a barrage of shots from Stinger and took cover behind a large speaker.

"Okay, okay," I said while trying to calm my nerves. "If I want to get through this and try to help my team win this thing, I'm gonna need to be smart and plan my next moves really carefully."

As I sat down to think, a rush of energy came to me as I covered more pink areas near me. I started thinking and analyzing the situation. I noticed that Stinger had stopped shooting ink for a while. Then I remembered a particular flaw for Splatlings. It takes a while for them to charge up for before its able to shoot. I then had an idea.

"Bait him to waste his shot," I thought. "And move in while he's charging up. I really hope this works..."

I threw another bomb over the speaker, and with enough good dodges, I managed to evade him. I got underneath the walkway he was on top of, inked the wall, and attempted to ambush him from behind. Suddenly, he changed into his squid form and launched away.

"Later, loser!" he said before he flew off.

"Uh...Arthur!" I heard Amy call uneasily. "Little help here!"

I saw her down below on the center stage about to be splatted by the remaining players at once. She looked up to see me.

"Quick! Super Jump Special!" she shouted.

"Special?" I repeated. I realized at that moment what she meant. The Special Weapon for my weapon was the Splashdown. That probably was why I felt such a big energy surge earlier. I was ready to use it.

The weirdest thing happened in the next couple of seconds. I took a deep breath, and as soon as I positioned myself to super jump to Amy, I felt as though everything happening around me had slowed down. I shot up into the air, and the peak of the jump, I channeled all the energy I had into my right hand. I felt ink cover my body as I holstered my Splattershot. I then plummeted down toward where Amy was standing. With all of my might, I slammed the ground, and a loud explosion rang in my ears. I felt the wind and ink swirl around me.

When the ink settled, I had seen that the other team members had vanished. Amy materialized behind me and slapped my back.

"Awesome job, bro!" she cheered.

But our celebrating was cut short when we saw a large pink beam come toward us. It was another Special weapon: the Sting Ray. I finally understood why Stinger (his nickname is obvious, right?) launched away. He just needed a clear shot to fire it. This thing was strong enough that it could fire through walls but somehow leave whatever it shot through intact. Except Inklings with a different ink color...

We avoided the laser and continued inking the ground. My hearts were racing as we continued battling. I planned out each move as quickly as I could, and sometimes, I wouldn't notice that someone was about to splat me until it was too late. Everything that I was doing seemed like second nature to me. It led me to begin asking myself this:

"Was this really something that all Inklings could do? Even those like me without any experience at all?"

* * *

Finally, the battle ended, and we all returned to Deca Tower.

"That was a pretty close battle..." the boy on our team said cautiously.

"Don't worry," Amy said. "I'm sure we won...well, I hope so..."

Judd and Li'l Judd came up in front of a screen with an overhead shot of the stage. A percentage bar started filling at both ends with pink ink and green ink. As it filled, both sides froze and suddenly shot to the middle. Li'l Judd held up a pink flag while Judd fell forward. It read 44.1% for green and 55.9% for pink.

We...lost...

The other team cheered while mine groaned in defeat.

"Oh, well..." Amy sighed. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be..."

I hung my head. The boy with the Tri-Slosher came over to me. I expected the worst.

"Hey, man," he said calmly. "I saw what you did out there with that Splashdown. It was pretty sweet!"

That caught me off guard.

"Y-You think so?" I asked.

"Definitely!" the girl with the charger said. "You were pretty good for your first battle."

"U-Uh...t-thanks...w-wait, how did-?!"

"Um...that's sorta my fault..." Amy admitted. "I kinda let them know that this was your first battle...but they're right! You were great out there!"

"Wow...I-I guess I was...thanks, everyone..."

"Oh, who cares?" Storm said. "You still lost."

"None of us asked for your opinion because we could care less about it," Amy said bluntly.

"I'm sorry. Care to repeat that?" Storm said in an ominous tone.

"You heard me. And I bet that he can take you on again."

"Amy, please," I said while slightly panicking. "They already have it out for me. Don't make it worse!"

"Is that so?" Storm continued while coming toward me. "Well, okay. How about we have a rematch?"

"Uh...that won't be necessary...and I'm kinda tired, too, so I think I should rest up before competing again..."

"You know what? Fine! I'm feeling kinda generous because I splatted you in that last match. I'll give you a week to get ready and train up some more."

"W-Why?"

"Because that way, no matter how much better you think you get, you're still not gonna be good enough to beat us."

She smirked as she and her brother walked off. I don't know why, but after she said that, I started feeling really inked off. Normally, her insults didn't really do that. But I guess now that I experienced a Turf War first-hand, I felt that I needed to prove her wrong.

* * *

As Amy and I left the tower, she looked at me with a bit of concern.

"Hey," she said carefully. "You okay?"

"Yeah..." I said lowly.

"Look, don't listen to what Storm said. You did great in your first Turf War, and I could tell that you had fun."

"True. I did."

"Well, then, her words mean nothing. Turf Wars are meant to be fun. If you take them too seriously, it'll be harder for you to enjoy them."

"That's actually pretty deep, Amy. When did you come up with that? Or, better question, who did you steal that from?"

"Lucky for you, you're right. I didn't come up with that. Someone else told me something like that, but I don't remember who."

"Hmm...well, maybe it'll come back to-"

"Oh, yeah! I remember now! It was-...Finley?!"

"Huh. It does sound like something that he'd say."

"No! Well...yeah, he did tell me that. But that's not what I meant. Look! He's over there!" She pointed to the grate where Marie was earlier. I saw a light blue tentacle go inside of it. "Come on! He went down that way!"

"W-Wait!" I tried to say. But Amy had already run over and dove into the grate in her squid form. With no other options, I went in after her.

"This can't end well, but it might answer some questions," I thought.

* * *

 ** _AN:_ In the next chapter, we'll see how those questions get answered. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and the next one will be up some time soon. See you then!**

 **[By the way, check out my Tumblr page called "Splatterverse Art". It's where I mainly post my drawings of my Splatoon characters...among other things. Feel free to visit it at any time, ask questions, or send your own** **art (if you have it). I don't use it too often, but I'm trying to use it more. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them as best as I can.]**

 **Oh, yeah! And, by the time this goes up, I hope that you all have a _Happy New Year_!**


	8. Reluctant Recruitment

_**AN: **_**And now, here's the next chapter! Finally, the story can really begin. Hope you all enjoy it.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 8: Reluctant Recruitment

As we went through the series of pipes, I eventually started seeing light again, and a certain thought occurred to me. I held onto Amy and slowed us down just before we shot out of the other grate.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"I just realized something," I said. "What if Finley didn't want us here?"

"Well, we're here, so it's a little late for second thoughts, don't you think?!"

"Did you here something?" we heard Finley say.

"Yeah..." we heard Marie say. " Hey, you weren't followed, were you?"

"Marie, please. I've managed to slip into that grate every time without being caught. I'm _positive_ nobody followed me."

"Was that Marie?!" Amy whispered a little too loudly. "As in, THE Marie!"

"Shh! Be quiet!" I said. "Do you _want_ them to hear us?!"

Suddenly, we heard a rumbling sound, and the next thing we knew, a powerful gust of air pushed us through the grate. We both screamed in surprise as we flew upward and landed on the ground at their feet. When we looked up, we saw Finley staring at us with wide shocked eyes. Marie slowly put a hand on her hip and turned to him. She held a small remote with a big red button on it in her other hand.

"'Positive' that you weren't followed, huh? Yeah, right..." she said with a smug look on her face. Finley glared at her in annoyance. She then saw me. "Wait a minute...it's you! Arthur, right?"

"Uh, h-hi, M-Marie," I said nervously. "Er, d-don't mind us. We just...um...took a wrong turn...?"

"Into a sewer grate?" Finley said. "What are you two doing here?! And how do you two know each other?"

"We could ask you the same thing!" Amy said defensively. "Is this where you go every time you say you have 'something to take care of'?!"

"W-Well, I-I, uh..."

"And you know Marie, the _actual_ Inkopolis pop star Marie, too! What's going on?!"

Finley looked at Marie pleading for her to help him answer. She shrugged.

"Well..." she sighed. "We might as well just tell them..."

"Tell us what?" I asked.

"It's a long story..." Finley sighed in defeat. "Where do you guys want us to start? Ask us anything."

"Okay, okay..." Amy said trying to calm herself. "First, how do you know Marie? And, follow up, can I have her autograph?"

"Sure," Marie said happily. "And to answer the first question, we met about two years ago. Remember that whole incident with the Great Zapfish going missing from Inkopolis Tower?"

"You mean, that actually happened?" I said in disbelief. "And it wasn't some sort of fake news story?"

"Nope. It was actually stolen by these bad guys called the Octarians. And Finley had a hand in bringing it-I mean, _her_ -back."

"Wait, you mean that Finley is that 'Agent 3' guy everyone heard about on the news?" Amy said.

"Yup," he said nonchalantly. "Agent 3 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon."

"The what?" I asked.

"The New Squidbeak Splatoon is a secret society of heroes, such as me and Marie, who protect the world from the Octarians. Emphasis on 'secret'."

"Well, that...kinda explains a lot..." I said. "But what does Marie have to do with this?"

"On the surface, I may seem like an absurdly talented pop star-" Marie said.

"With an absurdly inflated ego..." Finley mumbled. Marie, without any change of facial expression, quickly closed her parasol and whacked him on the head with it. He hunched over in pain while clutching his head.

"But in truth," she continued as she reopened it. "I'm actually Agent 2."

"Who's Agent 1, then?" I asked.

"Let me guess," Amy said. "It's Callie, isn't it?"

They nodded.

"Oh, right," I thought. "Squid 'Sisters'. Callie must be the other half."

"And that's sorta why I kept leaving..." Finley said while rubbing his head

"Why?" Amy asked. "And you know _her_ , too?"

"In more ways than one..." Marie mumbled.

"I met them at the same time," Finley continued while ignoring her. "And before you ask, yes, I think she'll be happy to give you an autograph, too. But, in all seriousness, I kept coming here because we have a serious problem."

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He and Marie looked at each other sadly.

"You tell them," Finley said to her. "I don't think I can..."

She nodded.

"Callie...went missing..." Marie explained with a heavy sigh. "And we're trying to find her..."

"Oh, no..."

"We think that she might be somewhere here in Octo Canyon."

"When did she go missing?"

"Almost a year ago..."

"Wait a minute, I remember hearing something about that!" Amy exclaimed. "She just suddenly disappeared one day, and she hasn't come back yet."

"Where did you here that?"

"Off the Hook news broadcast."

"Ah, that makes sense. Well, now you know the story...anything else?"

"Yeah," I said. "What makes you think that those Octarian guys are here in Octo Canyon? And that they have Callie to begin with?"

"We have a couple of special agents on the inside of their forces that keep us up to speed with their movements and actions."

"Their forces? How many of them are there?!"

"Too many to count..." Finley said. "By the way, you two realize that you can't go around telling anyone about any of this, right?"

"Don't worry, guys," Amy said. "Your secrets are safe with us."

"I wish that we could do more to help," I said. "But I'm confident that you guys will find her soon."

"I hope you're right," Finley said. "We're worried sick."

"Actually, maybe you guys _can_ help," Marie said.

"How?" I asked.

"My gran-er...the leader of the New Squidbeak Splatoon said that we could recruit anyone that volunteers."

"Oh, no..."

I knew what was gonna happen next.

"I volunteer!" Amy blurted out. (And _that_ was it...)

"Wait, what?!" I said. "Amy, are you crazy?!"

"If Callie's captured and they need help to find her, I'd like to do whatever I can to help. I can't just sit at home and do nothing knowing that an innocent and beloved pop star is in trouble."

"Well, before you blindly jump into this, let me ask something. What do agents of this team do anyway?"

"Use ink weaponry to fight off Octarians," Marie replied, "and complete missions that are assigned to you."

"You use weapons used in Turf Wars, but it's mainly to move around faster and defend yourself against them...and other stuff..."

"That doesn't sound so bad, I guess..."

"Then, we'll do it!" Amy declared.

"Welcome aboard, you two!" Marie said happily.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" I exclaimed. "I-I never agreed to do this!"

"But...I thought-" Amy said with disappointment.

"I can't do anything! You have more experience using weapons for Turf Wars than I do. I'd probably be useless if I joined..."

"That's not true," Marie said. "I've seen what you can do with a weapon, and I know you could be a valuable member of the team."

"That's the problem. I've never done much with weapons before. Saving you that one time was me just trying to help. I had no clue what I was doing."

"Aside from that, I meant I saw you during that Turf War you were in earlier."

"Huh? How?"

"I have my ways. Anyway, I could see on your face how much you were thinking about your next move. With that kind of quick and analytical thinking, you could be pretty good in Turf Wars and as an agent."

"I-I don't know..."

She stared at me longingly.

"Please, Arthur," she said. "I need your help. I know you can do it."

As she spoke, I saw the pleading in her eyes. I also saw eagerness like she really wanted me to help her. (Man, she looked so pretty...) I started feeling my face get warm as I looked at her. My mind must've gone to sleep as I did because I never expected myself to agree.

"Okay, I'll do it for you!" I said quickly. "Uh, I-I-I mean, um...I'll help you _both_ in any way that I can..."

"Really?" she said in disbelief. I saw her cheeks turn light pink. "Thank you. I knew you would help."

"Alright!" Amy cheered while shooting a fist in the air. "We're both agents now!"

"Okay," Finley said. "So starting today, you two are Agents 4 and 5 effective immediately. Welcome aboard, guys!"

"Wait a sec," I said. "Who's Agent 4, and who's Agent 5?"

"Well, it really goes from oldest to youngest, so..." Marie explained.

"Oh, so I'm Agent 4, and she's Agent 5 by default."

"That's right."

"Hey, that's not how it-!" Finley started before he saw Marie raise her parasol again. "Uh, never mind..."

"Well, do we have to go through some kind of training first?" I asked

"We make it a goal to train new agents through experience," Marie continued.

"Huh?" Amy and I said.

"You're both gonna go on a solo, or in this case _duo_ , 'practice' mission," Finley explained. "And once you're done, you'll basically get the whole idea of what we do."

"You sure this is a good idea?" Amy asked.

"Hey, I did it, and I'm still here."

"He's got a point," Marie agreed. "Besides, the first mission is always the easiest. Oh, yeah, and I just remembered. If you're gonna be agents, you need to look the part. Agent 3, can you help me get the Hero Suits, please?"

He nodded and followed Marie behind the cabin near us. They came back with two yellow hoodies, two pairs of headphones with small lights on them, and two pairs of black and orange snow boots.

"It's not really that cold here, guys..." I said. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"Trust us, some of the places around here are really chilly," Finley said. "You two are gonna need these. And maybe these..."

He pulled out two yellow and black shooters after handing us the new suits.

"Now, get changed," Marie ordered. "Your first missions start when you're ready."

* * *

Once we got changed, we examined each other.

"Yellow really is your color, sis," I said.

"You'd probably look better if your hoodie was orange," Amy said in response. "Just saying..."

"Don't worry," Finley said. "If you do well as agents, you can get your clothes custom colored. Just look at mine."

I guess the shock of everything that happened made us not notice the clothes that he was wearing. It was essentially the same as ours, but his hoodie was light blue to match his hair and he had black pants with a blue stripe on the sides. He also wore his normal black and blue shoes instead of boots and had headphones that looked like ours around his neck.

"Not bad...for a couple of hand-me-downs..." Marie said under her breath. ",Alright, so you guys have your suits, ink tanks, main weapons, bombs...am I forgetting something?"

"How about the actual mission details?" Amy asked.

"Oh, right, sorry. Follow us."

We followed the two to an empty spot on the ground.

"Now, shoot here," she said while pointing to the spot. We looked at her in confusion, and she giggled. "That's the face that Agent 3 had on his first day. Trust me it'll make sense."

Fin grabbed the shooter from Amy's hands and shot the space. We heard a clanking sound and soon, a big silver kettle had appeared. He gave the shooter back to her.

"Thanks, and I think you guys get the point of these things..." he said. I could tell that he was getting a bit more impatient.

"Let me guess," I said. "We go in there, and you guys will walk us through the rest. Right?"

"Close. You and Agent 5 will go in there; Marie will walk you through the mission; and I'll be heading out on a different mission. But I wish you guys the best of luck."

"W-Wait, where are you going now?" Amy asked.

"While you were changing, we got some more info on Callie's whereabouts, and I'm gonna see for myself. I'll be back soon."

"Good luck, Agent 3," Marie said. He nodded and exhaled deeply.

"I hope she's there this time..." I heard him say before he launched away. Amy and I looked at each other with concern.

"Um, Marie?" I asked. "Is he alright? He seemed really worried..."

"We're both really worried..." Marie said. "And any time we get a sighting of her, she's not there. We're getting a little frustrated at this point, but he's still trying to keep calm and stay hopeful. It's been really hard for him..."

"Oh..." Amy said sympathetically. "Well, let's get going so we can help you both out."

"Sounds like a plan!"

Marie then folded her parasol and held it like a gun in the air.

"Now, let's go tear those Octarians limb from limb!" she declared. She paused for a second. "From limb from limb from limb from-...well, I think you guys get the picture..."

"Yeah, and it's...still kinda disturbing if you think about it..." I thought while nodding.

Amy and I moved toward the kettle, and she jumped into it. The kettle let out a whistle. With my entire body shaking nervously, I finally changed into my squid form and dove in after her.

"This has gotta be the most _inked up_ thing that I've EVER signed up for!" I thought. "But it's too late to back out now..."

* * *

Amy and I landed in a pool of teal blue ink. We had changed our tentacle colors to match it automatically. We stood up and looked around to see the various tall buildings surrounding us. From what I was able to tell, we were on top of some kind of skyscraper, but the building and several others were floating high above a bunch of other smaller ones below. I also noticed that this place was surrounded with giant screens and a huge light was overhead giving the illusion that we were outside. We were apparently in some sort of dome.

"Wow!" Amy said excitedly. "Our first mission...so what do we have to do?"

"That's an easy one," Marie said over our headset. "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Marie."

"Okay. Now, can you guys see some sort of glowing yellow thing off in the distance?"

We looked around until I saw a glowing ball of light on top of a far off building.

"I think I see it," I said as I pointed up there. "What is it?"

"That would be a baby zapfish. It just occurred to me that I forgot to tell you that those slime balls have stolen those, too. And you guys are gonna get them."

"How?"

"Just maneuver you way to it and use your Hero Shots try to find some way of getting to it."

"Alright," Amy said, "but how do we get off of this floating building without plummeting down to whatever is below us?"

"See a pool of swirling ink in front of you?"

We saw the pool of ink and confirmed that it was there.

"That's a launchpad. Swim into it in your squid form, and you'll launch to a set landing spot on another rooftop. Just keep launching from one's that you find, and you should eventually reach the zapfish. But watch out for Octarians."

"Got it," we said simultaneously. "Thanks."

"Hey," Amy said. "What does an Octarian look like any way?"

"No idea," I said. "But something tells me that we're about to find out."

We swam over to the launchpad and shot over to another area covered in fuchsia ink. Experience (as little as it may be) has taught me to not walk in ink that's not your color so we covered it in ours and walked through it. Suddenly, a couple of blobs of that fuchsia ink slowly flew overhead. I saw that the source of them was some kind of creature that looked like an octopus tentacle with a face, small legs, and black boots. It was piloting a small machine with the tip of it's 'head'. It shot another blob at Amy.

"I take it that this is an Octarian?" I asked Marie.

"Yep. Pretty weird looking, am I right?" she said. "Hurry up and splat it. He'll keep shooting at you until you do."

I then heard a popping sound.

"Done!" Amy said cheerily. "That was easy."

"Yeah, well, it was only one. And it wasn't protected well, either," Marie continued. "There's plenty more where that came from. And not all of them are so easy to splat like that one. Just keep moving."

My sister and I continued on to find that baby zapfish and used our shooters to deal with any Octarians. (To be fair, Amy did most of the splatting.) Marie was right; there were several more that we had to splat in order to continue moving. Those guys can get pretty dangerous if they gang up. After dealing with several groups of them and other obstacles that we had to maneuver past, we found one more launchpad that sent us to a solitary platform floating in midair. (I'll never understand how they do that and why.) In front of us was the baby zapfish floating in what looked like a light bulb. It looked pretty frightened in there.

"Okay, we found it," I said. "Now what?"

"Break it out of there, and bring it back here," Marie said. "Just shoot it with ink."

Amy and I shot the barrier until it dispersed making it look like the 'glass bulb' shattered. Amy grabbed the zapfish and held it tenderly. It nuzzled against her sweetly.

"Aw...it likes me," she said while hugging it.

"Great job, guys!" Marie said. "Mission accomplished. Now, head back to me and we'll see what happens next. Just go back the way you came in."

"We're on our way," I said.

We then launched back to the entrance and looked for a way back. Eventually, we went inside of the landing spot and swam into a pipe at the bottom. We found ourselves popping out of the kettle and back in Octo Canyon. We found Marie back at the cabin.

"Welcome back!" she greeted us happily. "Good work on your first mission."

"Thanks!" Amy said. "Oh, and here's the zapfish." She offered it to Marie. However, Marie looked at it with a surprised expression.

"Sparky?!" she said confusedly.

"'Sparky'? Who's that?" I asked.

"This zapfish that Agent 5 has. He's the first one that Agent 3 rescued on his first mission."

"How do you know that this is him?"

"Look at his whiskers. They aren't curly like normal zapfish." She was right. They were in a zig-zag pattern instead.

"Why would the Octarians steal zapfish, too?" Amy asked.

"They need them for power like we do, but they most likely plan to use them to power various weapons to attack us. We're gonna have to stay sharp if we're gonna get them all."

"But how many do we need?"

"Depends on how many that they still have. Agent 3 and I found some of them on our own, but there are still some left out there."

"Well, we'll help," I said. "But what I don't understand is if they need power, why would they take Callie, too?"

"Not sure, really. But whatever reason they have can't be good for her or us."

"Alright. To recap, we have a several stolen zapfish and a pop star/agent possibly in the clutches of a race of octopus people. And the only ones who have any idea what to do are a small group of Inklings."

"That about sums it up," Marie said.

"SERIOUSLY! WHY DID I AGREE TO DO THIS?!"

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ **And thus begins a new adventure for the new agents. Arthur's really gonna have his hands full. Will he be able to overcome his anxieties or will the pressure be too much for him? The only way to find out is to keep reading.**

 **(And I know that there's technically not an Agent 5, but bear with me. This isn't your normal retelling. Besides, Amy has to be involved in this somehow. And as for the Great Zapfish, keep reading to see what happens.)**

 **Anyway, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one.**


	9. Repeating History

_**AN:**_ **Here's the next chapter. This should wrap up Arthur's POV for now. Hope you all enjoy it!**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 9: Repeating History

While resting from a successful mission, Amy asked Marie to give us more insight on the Octarian incident two years ago. Meanwhile, I was still mentally contemplating my poor life choices...but I still listened anyway.

"So...how exactly did the whole 'Great Zapfish disappearance' thing happen anyway?" she asked. "And how did Finley get involved?"

"To make a long story short," Marie started, "the Octarian's leader, DJ Octavio, wanted to get revenge on Inklings for losing a war many years ago. He decided to steal the Great Zapfish as well as the small ones so that we would lose power and his forces would attack us when we're weak."

"Wow...wait, did you say 'DJ-'"

"Yes, he's a DJ...it's hard to believe, I know, but he is. Anyway, our leader Cap'n Cuttlefish, Callie, and I found out about their plan and tried to put a stop to it. But it's not so easy when trying to balance protecting an unassuming city and keeping said city entertained and updated on Turf War stages."

"Such is the life of a pop star with a secret identity..." I said. "Not that I would know."

"Yeah, but Callie and I knew. And surprisingly, it's the fact that we were so well-know at the time that led us to meeting Finley. Believe it or not, we met him when we were chased into a diner by several fans. We sat at his table to hide, and he actually helped us escape them. He told us that he had just gotten to Inkopolis the day before, so we showed him around and cheered him on in his first Turf War. Throughout all of that, we became friends. Although, there was an...awkward moment between us that would've made things very different..."

"What happened?"

"I don't wanna talk about it...it's embarrassing for him and me...not to mention, irrelevant."

I made a mental note to ask Finley about that later. (What? I'm inquisitive so I ask questions a lot. Sue me.)

"So _that's_ how you guys met!" Amy said. Her expression changed as if she realized something. "His first Turf War? Hey, that was the day I first met him, too! That was when I was mad at him for breaking my winning streak."

"Yeah. Heh heh, he was so scared that you'd hurt him if you saw him after that. It was his idea to go apologize and explain that it was his first time competing in it."

"Oh...I...actually feel kinda bad now for giving him such a hard time that day..."

"Yeah, you do tend to scare people when you get angry..." I said. She shot me a annoyed look. "Just saying..."

"Uh, moving on..." Marie continued. "Once Finley heard about the Great Zapfish going missing, he said that he'd like to help in any way he could. So Callie and I decided to try to get him to join the New Squidbeak Splatoon. That way, we could have some extra help in finding her. As you can tell, he gladly accepted. After that whole adventure, things got a bit quieter...well, as quiet as they would normally get...until recently. Once Callie went missing, we set up a small base here in Tentakeel Outpost and started searching."

"What happened to Cap'n Cuttlefish?"

"He's on a research trip. Finley was supposed to go with him, but the situation here was more important."

"Good thing he understands what's happening to let him stay."

Marie winced a little.

"...He doesn't know that Finley's not with him, does he?"

"No...but I'm sure he'll be find with it. He'd probably want him to do it."

"It's a good thing that Fin is so willing to help."

"And it's also good that he treated you and Callie like people instead of just pop stars," Amy added.

"Yeah..." Marie said while deep in thought. "I just wonder how he's holding up so far...I'm a little worried about him..."

"He did seem really distressed about her absence," I said. "He must care for her a lot."

"We both do. She's my cousin and best friend. And I could tell that he genuinely loves her."

"Aw, that's sweet," Amy said while glancing at me with a wide mischievous grin. "Finley's got a crush on a pop star. Gee, that sounds familiar..."

I mouthed "Splat you!" to her. I felt myself start blushing.

"Actually, it's not just a crush," Marie continued. "They-"

She was interrupted when Amy's cellphone rang.

"Ooh! News announcement!" Amy said somewhat excitedly as she took out her phone. She began looking at whatever the announcement was about, but as she saw it, her expression turned to shock and worry. "Uh-oh..."

"What's the matter?" Marie and I asked.

"Look at this..." She showed us the currently live news broadcast featuring the group Off the Hook. I get the feeling that you know who they are already, but I'll explain who they are and what they look like anyway. (Don't worry, I'm not gonna be like Sheldon. I'll be short.)

Off the Hook is a new musical duo consisting of Pearl and Marina. Pearl has pale skin, is a bit on the short side, and has short white hair tentacles with pink highlights. She normally wore a pointy white and pink crown on her head, black finger-less gloves, a white dress with a big zipper, pink tights, and white boots with matching zippers. Marina was taller and had long hair tentacles with teal highlights. She has dark brown skin, and wore a black sleeveless top with a big zipper and collar, black finger-less gloves, black shorts, teal tights, and black boots with matching zippers. She also normally wore a pair of black headphones with a teal circle.

On most days, they were in their studio in Inkopolis Square doing live broadcasts on Turf War stages and other news, but today they were outside standing in front of Deca Tower.

"This just in!" Marina said to the camera. "For those of you just tuning in: THE GREAT ZAPFISH HAS DISAPPEARED!"

"WHAT?!" Marie and I exclaimed at the same time.

"I'm telling ya, Marina!" Pearl said while looking up at the tower. "I think I've heard this story before because it sounds really familiar!"

"I know what you mean. But seriously, what's going on?! First, Callie goes missing, and now the Great Zapfish, too?"

"You think that they're connected somehow?"

Marina shrugged. "Not sure. Maybe we should do something."

"Maybe, but...eh, whatever. I'm sure they'll turn up eventually! In other news, since the city's power is slightly fading, officials at Deca Tower have put schedules for Turf Wars and other battles into action. This way, there won't be so many power outages to cancel the fun unexpectedly."

"I hope this get's resolved fast. No power, no battles, no fun...someone pinch me to wake me from this nightmare!"

"Careful what you ask for..." Pearl said with a mischievous grin. Marina let out a high-pitched yelp as she saw her.

"W-Well, uh, looks like that's all the time we have!" she said hurriedly.

"Until next time..." Pearl said.

"Don't get cooked...Stay off the hook!" they said as they did their signature pose. (However, before the camera went out, Pearl sneakily gave her unfortunate co-host a small pinch on her arm earning a small shriek from her and a glare...)

All three of us were speechless. How could a huge zapfish just vanish?!

"I don't believe this!" Marie exclaimed to break the silence. "Seriously? They're doing this again?!"

"You think that the Octarians took it?" I asked.

"They had to. The smaller ones generate a lot of power, but the Great Zapfish has a _ton_ of it. But my only question is 'how'."

Before any of us could figure out an answer, Finley came flying back in his squid form and crash landed behind the shack. He stumbled out disoriented and fell on his back. We all hurried over to him.

"Finley! Are you alright?!" Marie said with concern. "What happened?"

"I wish _I_ knew the answer to that..." he said with a deep sigh. "But in any case, we have another problem."

"Let me guess, the Great Zapfish is missing again?"

His eyes grew wide. He really must've not expected such a quick answer.

"Yeah...uh, how...?"

"News broadcast."

"Man, they're good at their job." Marie slightly scowled down at him. "Uh, sorry, no offense. You and Callie were good, too."

As Finley got to his feet, he took notice of Sparky who was still in Amy's arms. He smiled.

"I take it that your first mission went well?" he asked.

"You bet!" Amy said happily.

"And you got captured again, huh?" he asked Sparky. The little zapfish nodded.

"By the way, what do we do with him?" Amy asked. "And if he's a fish, shouldn't he be in water?"

"Nah, zapfish are amphibious. He can breathe air for as long as we can, but he does like a good swim. I'll take him."

Amy handed him the zapfish. Sparky then shocked Finley a little causing him to jump in surprise.

"I both love and hate when you do that..." he said. He took him behind the cabin, and we then heard splashing sounds. Fin then came back empty handed.

"Where'd you put him?" I asked.

"Down in a bowl holding the other small zapfish that we got earlier."

"What others?"

He led us over to see a large bowl on another floating platform beneath where we were standing. A bunch of zapfish were floating in it.

"Okay, what's with all the floating platforms around here?" Amy asked. "There kinda freaking me out."

"More importantly, _how_ are they floating?" I asked.

"Even _more_ importantly," Marie broke in sounding a bit impatient. "Fin, did you find Callie?"

"If I did, wouldn't she be here?" he said.

"Good point...oh, well, the search goes on..."

"Also, I fell like I should mention that the boss kettle is probably open now."

"What makes you say that?"

"I saw it. Check it out."

He brought us all to a larger kettle in the middle of the area. It rested on what looked like a decorative purple pillow. It then whistled like it was steaming.

"Is that our cue?" Finley continued.

"Er...actually, I think that's just _your_ cue," Marie said. "I'm not so sure that Agents 4 and 5 are ready yet."

"Ready for what?" Amy asked.

"Usually, once a kettle like this opens," Finley explained, "there's some sort of boss or giant weapon waiting inside of it, and it has a zapfish. If we destroy it, free zapfish, and we might find Callie down there."

"Have you checked?" I asked.

"No. They were sealed shut when I was searching the entire canyon. This one just opened up which means it's time to investigate."

"Alright, let's go!" Amy said.

"Hold it," I said as I held her back. "You heard Marie, we're not ready yet. I mean, we don't even know what's down there. What if it's some kind of trap?"

"We'll never know, but for safety reasons, I'm going solo," Finley said.

"Wait!" Amy said. "I want to go, too!"

"What? Why?" I asked.

"This is something that I've learned in Turf Wars that I've been in: don't go into unknown turf near the enemy's base on your own or you might be splatted by surprise. That lesson can be applied here, too. Am I right?"

"Well, uh...huh..."

"No words means I win the argument. So I'm going."

"Um, excuse me," Marie said. "Agent 3 and I are the ones who decide that. And from what I can tell, you seem to have a lot of energy. I can respect that."

She called Fin over so that they can talk in private. Eventually, they made a decision...one that I really didn't like...

"She can go," they said.

"Sweet!" Amy cheered.

"Seriously?!" I exclaimed. "Are you two crazy?! She can't!"

"Two against one vote, bro."

"But..."

"Don't worry, dude," Fin said. "I'll make sure that nothing happens to her. In fact, Marie and I agreed that she can only come as back up. She's basically gonna watch the whole time, but if things get out of hand, then she can help."

I still didn't like this plan, but I felt a little reassured knowing that Amy wasn't gonna do much. Also, knowing that Finley had more experience dealing with things like this made me calm down a bit. I just hoped that this won't be the one time something goes wrong.

With no other option, I finally agreed.

"O-Okay...she can go," I said. "But, _please_ , for the love of cod, be careful."

"We will," Amy said. "You worry too much."

"You sure it's not that you don't worry enough?"

"Nope. Not at all."

I rolled my eyes and groaned. Amy then quickly hugged me.

"I'll be fine. I'll stay far back until I'm needed," she said.

I hugged her back.

"Just don't do anything stupid..." I said. I glanced at Finley. "That goes for both of you, by the way."

"When would I ever do anything stupid?" Finley asked.

"Well..." Marie started.

"DON'T!" Fin said sternly at her. She snickered mischievously.

"Get moving, you two!" she said.

Fin and Amy stood on the big kettle.

"Good luck, agents," Marie said.

"Thanks," they said with a wave. They gave a reassuring nod at me. I returned the favor. They finally dove into the kettle in their squid forms.

Okay, now that I think about it I'm not sure what's worse: my sister and my friend going off to fight who knows what, or the fact that they left me alone with Marie...

I'm gonna go with the latter...

"Oh, well," I said. "Maybe things might be easier for them down there than any of us thought."

Marie glared at me. She facepalmed and groaned loudly.

"Why would you say that?!" she said as she walked back to the cabin.

I was confused.

"Did I say something wrong?" I thought.

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ **Yes, Arthur. Yes, you did. You jinxed it!**

 **Will Finley and Amy survive the first boss? Maybe. Will Callie and the Great Zapfish ever be found? Probably. Will Arthur get the girl in the end? Possibly.**

 **But the only way to find out is to keep reading. We'll pick up with Finley's POV in the next chapter.**

 **Until then, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 **{Don't hesitate to review, follow, or favorite.}**


	10. From Better to Worse

_**AN:**_ **Sorry to keep you waiting for so long, but I have returned with a new chapter (after putting it off again for another college semester)!**

 **Hope you all enjoy it!**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 10: From Better to Worse

Hey, it's Finley speaking again. Now, it's time for me to finish up my flashback. Now, where was I...? Oh, right, I was knocked out.

I woke up to Marie shaking me.

"Fin! Fin! Wake up!" she said worriedly.

"I'm up," I groaned painfully. "My head hurts like crazy, but I'm up."

"Callie told me what happened. Are you okay?"

"I think so. What _did_ happen exactly? I was out for most of it."

"You were knocked out by some Octolings, and they broke Octavio out of his snow globe!"

"What?!"

She pointed to the remains of the snow globe. It was smashed to bits and glass was everywhere. But there was no sign of Octavio...

"Oh, this is bad...where's Callie?" I said as I stood up.

"Here I am," I heard her call. She came over from the shack wearing some new sunglasses on her head.

"Did you always have those sunglasses, Callie?"

"Uh, yes. But I feel like that's not as important as what just happened..."

"Sorry, you're right. But I'm glad you're okay. Now, where's Octave?"

"I don't know. I took cover when those Octolings showed up. When I saw the aftermath, everyone was gone. I tried waking you up, but you wouldn't move. So I called Marie to come help."

"You don't think that they kidnapped him, do you?" Marie said.

"Maybe," I said. "But whatever the case, we should probably find him and Octavio."

I took one step forward and almost collapsed. The girls came to help me stay standing.

"Okay...we'll find them...after I get some more rest..."

"We can probably hold off on searching for a while," Callie said. "I mean, how much can he do? Most of his forces are gone anyway. Plus, the Great Octoweapons were destroyed."

"You might be right, Callie," Marie said, "but I still don't like the idea of him being free..."

"Me neither...but she's got a point..." I said to Marie. "How much can he do in one or two days?"

Eventually, we settled on trying to find Octavio and Octave later.

"Let's go home," Callie said. "It's been quite a day already."

"You said it..." Marie and I said.

With that, we left the valley and arrived back in Inkopolis. As we all went home, I could feel the overwhelming sense of dread that we all had with the knowledge that DJ Octavio was set free...

* * *

To move this part of the story along a bit faster (because even I think that it's been dragging on for a bit...), I'll give a brief overview of what happened over the next few months that followed the incident...

As time went on, we did everything in our power to try to find the missing DJ and Octave, but we could never find them.

We mentioned the problem to Cap'n Cuttlefish, and he also became concerned...after he chewed us out for not keeping a close eye on Octavio. (We argued back that he should've let us know that he was out on a research trip to begin with...but we still lost the argument...) Anyway, he gave us some good news. During his travels, he went to a beautiful canyon on the outskirts of the city, but he started to see that the air and water there were beginning to get polluted. He suggested that we search there for some suspicious activity. Also, the cap'n had asked me to join him on another short research trip that he will go on some time later. I accepted the offer and planned to get ready early. The Squid Sisters agreed to scope out the canyon for some signs of Octarian activity.

Speaking of the Squid Sisters, things got complicated in their lives really fast. Along with the search, they still had to keep up with everything else in their lives, so they really had to balance their time. Eventually, one day, they both threw a fit about how everything was going too fast for them. Once they calmed down, I suggested that they take a well-deserved vacation. They were one step ahead. In a rare instance, they both managed to get some vacation time during the same few days, and they were planning to return to Calamari County for a family visit. I thought that it was a good idea and that it might help them reconnect a bit more.

As for me, my life took a unexpected turn (well, more than it already has) when my parents called me one day. They heard about my exploits (minus my Octo Valley adventure) in Inkopolis and were happy to hear that I was doing well. They then made an odd request. Because they felt that I wouldn't be able to support myself solely by competing in Turf Wars, they wanted me to start seeking another means of providing for myself. With little experience with work, I suggested that I enroll in Inkblot Art Academy in Inkopolis to see if I could learn how to make art into a profession. They were up to the idea, and after applying, I was accepted. However, I planned to actually begin my classes several months later in order to give myself time to keep searching for Octavio.

Okay, at the moment, I think you're mostly caught up. Now, I'll start again at about a few weeks before I started my first day at the academy. I had finished having breakfast with Callie and Marie at a café near the train station before it was time for Marie to go on her vacation that day.

"Ah..." Marie sighed contentedly. "Those were some good waffles. Your pancakes were a bit too syrupy for my liking though, Fin..."

"That's what made them good!" I retorted. "Honestly, your waffles were too dry to me..."

We then stared at each other in realization.

"HEY! Who said that _you_ could eat some of _my_ breakfast?!" we said simultaneously before breaking into laughter. Truly, neither of us cared.

Callie, however, was strangely quiet. She looked down at her empty plate lost in her own thoughts.

"Uh, Cal?" I said. "You okay?"

"Huh?" she said. "Oh...uh, yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about this appointment I have later."

"Too bad you can't skip it..." Marie said. "Now, I have to ride the train by myself. It's gonna be so boring..."

"Don't worry. I'll be up at Calamari County tomorrow. Then the vacation can begin."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Just try not to oversleep, okay?"

"Heh, look who's talking..." I murmured. Without another word, Marie stood up, came over to me, and flicked my ear. "Ow!"

"My train comes in an hour," she said nonchalantly. "I'd better get going."

"Okay," Callie said while standing.

"Really?! You're just gonna ignore-?!" I started before Marie flicked my other ear. "Gah! Stop it! That kinda hurts, you know?!"

"Oh, did I do that?" Marie said innocently with a mischievous smirk. As I stood up, I looked behind her.

"Oh, look! The Chirpy Chips!" I said while pointing behind her.

"What? Where?" she said as she looked behind her. I quickly flicked her ear. "Ouch! Hey!"

"What? The was a bug," I said while stifling a laugh. She then pinched my ear really hard in response. "OW! Why?!"

"Okay, guys, break it up," Callie attempted to say in a serious tone (She was trying her hardest not to smile at our quarrel). "Marie has a train to catch, remember?"

"Right," Marie and I agreed. We traded small glares as if we were keeping a close guard on our ears. (Like I said, we had a strange relationship...)

We headed to the train station and waited until Marie's train arrived. She gave us both goodbye hugs, and she boarded the train. We waved to her as she looked out the window. She looked a little sad but still managed a small smile and wave.

Callie and I then left the station.

"So, Callie," I said. "What's happening at this appointment?"

"Oh, you know, the usual manager meeting and other stuff like that," she said. "Nothing too special. But I have other errands to do after that like packing up to meet with Marie tomorrow."

"Oh, right. Almost forgot..."

My attention then shifted to the sunglasses on her head. There was something...off about them...

"Okay, I really need to ask. Where did you get those shades?" I said.

Callie looked a little flustered when I asked.

"Uh, I saw them on Annie's online retail shop. Remember when she made it a while back?"

"Oh, yeah! I'm still waiting on some new headphones I ordered from there."

"These arrived when I found Marie to come help us after the Octavio-escaping incident."

"Okay, that makes sense. They look nice on you."

"Thanks," she said while sliding them over her eyes.

While she did look normal, something about her was different. She seemed calmer than her usual self and a lot quieter. I speculated that it was her trying to keep her excitement about spending time with her cousin contained.

Soon, she went to her appointment, and I went about my business for the rest of the day until I went home.

However, I never realized that after parting with Callie, things would seriously go downhill from there...

* * *

Two days later, I was startled slightly by a frantic knocking at my door. I hurried to answer it, and when I did, I saw Marie standing at the door.

"Oh, Marie! You're-" I paused when I saw her face. She looked like she had finished running up to my apartment and looked very concerned. She was still carrying her suitcase. "W-What's the matter? Is everything alright?"

"Did you see Callie recently?" she asked.

"Uh, no. I thought she went to see you for your vacation with each other."

"Did you go with her to the train station?"

"No. She said she was running late and that she'll see me when you two got back. Wait, why do you ask?"

"That's the thing! She never showed up!" she exclaimed.

"What?!"

"The day after I got there, I expected her to come off a train, and I waited for her at the station. But she never came at all that day. I called her manager to ask if he knew, but he said she went home after work. I figured you saw her at some point."

"I didn't. Come to think of it...I haven't heard from her or even saw her since she left for that appointment she had the day you left. She never answered my calls or responded to my texts either."

Our eyes met when we both realized that something is terribly wrong. We both hurried to their apartment down the hall and called out for Callie as we searched all over. The whole place was silent, and it clearly let us know that she was not here. Now, I was getting worried.

"Where could she be?" Marie asked with her voice getting increasingly anxious. "If she's not here, where else could she have gone?!"

"Marie, now's not the time to panic," I said. "We need to slow down and think this through. This isn't like her. She usually lets either of us know where she is if she's going out, and she rarely forgets to do that. But she hasn't been doing that at all ever since-"

It then hit me. And Marie got the same idea.

"Octo Valley," we said.

After gathering our agent gear and weapons, we made our way to the valley as fast as possible.

Once we reached it, the place was still deserted and had pieces of glass from the broken snow globe still scattered on the ground. However, Marie noticed a pink paper with a large green 'x' stuck on the base of the globe and picked it up. Upon a closer examination, we saw that it was a poster advertising some kind of upcoming concert.

It had "RELEASE THE REMIX!" printed at the top with the 'x' below it. At the bottom in smaller letters, it said that the concert was coming soon at Octo Canyon.

"Octo Canyon?" I questioned. "Weren't we supposed to check out that place?"

"Yeah," Marie said. "But things got so hectic, I guess none of us actually managed to get there."

"We really need to work on setting a schedule...that's just sad even for us..."

"Seriously..."

"Actually, Octo Canyon might be exactly where we need to go. Octave told me about that place before."

"He did?"

"Yeah. He mentioned that bad Octarians moved there. So that must mean..."

Marie's eyes widened in realization, and I had the feeling that we may have had the same idea. We finally figured out what might've happened to Callie...

"Fin..." she said quietly. "If what I'm thinking is true, then that means...Callie's there..."

"Yeah...and if what I'm thinking is also true...it also means Callie's there with... _him_..."

Marie then growled and crumpled the paper. "I swear, if he hurt her in any way, he's gonna be sorry!"

I nodded.

"Well, I guess that settles that," I said. "Time to go to Octo Canyon."

With this situation seemingly getting worse by the minute, we began our journey to the canyon hoping and praying to the Great Zapfish that Callie was safe and sound.

But before we actually went out, we decided that we'll need a solid plan first...

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ **Well, this is looking really bad...but it'll all work out (probably). Anyway, hope all of you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one!**


	11. The Truce

_**AN:**_ **Next chapter is ready and waiting to be read. Hope you'll like it!**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 11: The Truce

"Okay," I said. "So, let's think about this first. We're gonna have a hard time looking for Callie if we just go to the canyon by ourselves."

"You're right," Marie said. "We're gonna need some help."

"Who do we know that could help us?"

"Hm...well, I could call Sheldon for some help if we need extra weapons or repairs."

"That's good. Anyone else?"

"I think that's it. Unless we call gramps."

"He's too busy on another trip."

"Oh, right. Sheesh, why does he keep going on so many lately?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. So for now, the New Squidbeak Splatoon is down to just two agents."

"I think so..." Marie said while looking down. "I don't think we can do this alone, Fin..."

"We're really are gonna need some extra help..."

I then got an idea. It was a bit risky and, if not, it was crazy. But it might the only option.

"Well, I think I know _someone_ I could ask for help," I said. "But it might mean that I'm gonna have a lot of explaining to do..."

"Who?"

"You remember Amy?"

"Oh, yeah! That girl that you're on a team with. Wait...you're gonna ask her?"

I nodded. "She's good at Turf Wars and Ranked battles. Maybe with better training, she could be a new agent."

"That's actually a good idea. One of the few that you have."

"Uh...thanks?"

"You're welcome. Now, how can we bring her here without her freaking out over what's happening?"

"Hmm...didn't think of that."

"So much for a 'fool-proof' plan..."

"Can you stop that for two seconds?" I thought.

"Also, before we get this plan going," Marie continued. "Let's set up a base at Octo Canyon first. And one of us should scout out ahead to see what's there so we're not surprised by anything."

"I'll do it. It might be better to know what we might have in-store for us there."

Then I had another thought.

"Okay, so we got the plan in the works, but what happens if Amy refuses to help?"

"I thought about that," Marie admitted. "I have a backup. I'm gonna do my own search to see if there could be someone that can help us. They'll need to have 'the look'."

"What 'look'?"

"Courageous, smart, and determined. They need to have these as well as great skills in battle."

"Didn't I only get one battle in before you and Callie recruited me?"

"Not the point," she said with hands on her hips. "My point is that I can tell if they'll be able to help us. I could flag them down to see if they're willing to join us."

"What if they recognize you?"

"I'll wear a disguise."

"That won't do anything!"

"Has it failed us yet?"

I thought about it.

"Oh..." I said. "I _hate_ it when you're right!"

Marie grinned.

"So, it's settled," she said. "We set up things in the canyon, find a new agent or two, and save Callie."

"Right."

"Okay, this will be a piece of crab cake. Now, a new problem."

"What's that?"

"Where exactly _is_ Octo Canyon?"

I paused.

"I thought you knew..." I said uneasily.

"No, I don't. I thought you did..." she said equally uneasily.

We looked at each other for a second in silence.

"To the internet!" we declared.

* * *

After finding where the canyon was and traveling there, we discovered that the Octarians had already set up some of their stuff there. We could tell it was them because there were splotches of fuchsia ink all over the ground when we arrived.

But we also found a small cabin there that was already set up.

"I wonder how this got here..." I said.

"I think gramps put it there during his trip here," Marie said. "I hope he doesn't mind if we use it."

"I bet he won't. But how long did it take to build it?"

"Sheldon probably helped out. Also, check this out. It's called 'Cuttlefish Cabin'."

"Subtle, cap'n, real subtle..." I said sarcastically.

"Anyway, should you get ready for the scouting mission?"

"Right. I'm ready, and I'm about to go."

"Wait, I saw something else online. Some of the places here get chilly the further down you go, so you should probably wear something warmer."

"Way ahead of you, Agent 2. I put on thermal clothes under my suit. I'm nice and warm." (By the way, I was wearing my new official agent suit at time. It was a nice gift I got from the other agents earlier.)

"That's good. Wish I could go with you."

"We already heard Pearl and Marina announce that Callie's missing, so people are already a bit worried about her absence. The last thing we need is both Squid Sisters to go missing."

"You got a point. But still, I hate that you have to go alone."

"Yeah, me, too. But I'll be fine...I hope..."

"Hmm..." Marie hummed in thought. "Wait, before you go..."

"Huh?"

I was then caught off guard when she quickly gave me a hug.

"Uh...what's this for...?" I asked.

"A hug for good luck and as thanks for helping me."

I could tell she was having a hard time trying to not think of the worst that could happen to either me or Callie. She just needed some comfort.

"Oh..." I said while hugging her back. "Well, of course. Aside from helping you, that's my girlfriend who's gone missing, remember? I'd do anything to get her back."

"Heh, yeah..."

"Everything will be alright, Marie. We'll get her back."

"I just really hope you're right..."

"When have I ever been wrong?"

She abruptly stopped the hug and stared at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, don't answer that," I said quickly.

"You wouldn't really _want_ me to," she said. "Trust me. Now, get moving, dummy."

"I'm on it," I said with a thumbs-up. (Although, I did think the "dummy" was a little uncalled for...and killed the moment...)

I got moving and explored the regions of the canyon.

From what we saw, there were five distinct regions. The one that we were in was Tentakeel Outpost. After seeing as much as there was to see in that region, which was the smallest, I set out for the second one.

To give you an idea of how I went through this, I made a plan to explore each section for a few days until moving on to the next. Once the day was done, I went back to the cabin and described to Marie what I saw.

* * *

On the last day of my scouting, I reached a severely polluted area at the bottom of the canyon. And when I say polluted, I mean _really_ polluted! The Octarians, for some odd reason, always had floating platforms and other machines everywhere, and for once, I'm glad they did because the entire floor of the canyon was filled with some dark purple liquid that I really didn't want to touch. I wasn't sure what it was, but it smelled terrible...

As I was continuing to explore the area while traversing multiple platforms, I started developing an uneasy feeling like someone was watching me. Every few minutes I would look around to see if someone was following me. I dismissed the idea as paranoia because I was deep in Octarian territory, but my suspicions were about to be proven correct...

After looking around one more time and turning back forward to walk, my three hearts almost stopped when I found myself face-to-face with a particular Octoling girl that I wasn't too fond of...and to put this into perspective, we were so close that our noses were almost touching...

"Hello, Agent 3," she said in a calm tone with folded arms. "Or 'Finley', was it? Can't say it's too much of a pleasure to see you again."

"O-O-Octavia!" I said in surprise. After our first (and second) encounter, she made it really well-known that she didn't like Inklings, but she did kinda help me when I was fighting Octavio. I was always nervous whenever she was brought up or around because I always had a feeling that she only helped me defeat him just so she could destroy me herself. Either way, you'd better believe I was on my guard when she arrived. (Come to think of it...I don't even remember if I even told her my name...Octave must've let it slip at some point.)

"So are you gonna back away from my face or do you wanna keep admiring my eyes?" she continued somewhat impatiently.

"Uh...well, y-you do sorta h-have-...um..." I started not knowing what else to say at the moment.

"If you finish that sentence..." she slowly said while scowling at me angrily. I saw her hand ball up into a tight fist, and her other hand was holding an Octoshot.

"Sorry!" I quickly backed up a good five feet from her. (Although, I probably would've hit myself if I did finish saying that.) I could see that she had clothes that were slightly different from what she wore the last time we met.

She had black boots with heels, black shorts with loose belts on her waist, a black top with metal plates like armor on it, and her usual black, fingerless gloves. Her usual seaweed stalks were still sticking out of her black hair.

"So...uh...h-how have you been...?"

"Could be better..." she said bitterly while folding her arms. "Grampa's really kicked up his plans for revenge. Ugh...it's ridiculous."

"I don't know. It seems like the right amount of crazy for him..."

"Including taking Octave hostage and making him essentially a general?"

"Yeah..."

I paused for a second to realize what she said.

"Hold on, what?!"

"You heard me. That 'strong-will' thing or whatever my brother had? Gone. Shattered. From now on, he's as much of an enemy to you as Octavio is."

"So that's what happened to him. Well, I guess you're happy that your whole family is against me, right?"

"Actually...not as much as you think..." she said with a hint of sadness in her voice. "I'll admit it. I hate you and the Inkling race as a whole..."

"Glad you're sugarcoating it..." I thought.

"But I hate the idea of being controlled even more. And I know my brother does, too."

"He's really being controlled again?"

"We both were. Grampa found out about me helping you, too. He saw us as traitors at first, but then he decided to give us another chance. But the way he thought of it was to make sure that we couldn't betray him. So, he decided to hypnotize us."

"Hypnotize? That's just...terrible. His own grandchildren? He's nuts!"

"Tell me about it. However, before he could actually get to me, I shut down the power to the place for a minute so I could escape. Octave wasn't so lucky..."

"Oh, man...wait...why are you telling me all this stuff anyway?"

Octavia looked down.

"Because now, I wanna overthrow him and put an end to all this insanity," she said with determination. "But above all else, I wanna save my brother."

"Funny, when I first met Octave, he said he wanted this crazy war to end, too. I guess he rubbed off on you a little, huh?"

"Shut up," she said bluntly.

"Just saying. Although, I do admire your determination."

"I have the determination, sure. But...I'm alone, and I know I won't be able to do it all on my own. I can't show my face to grampa anymore either. He basically banished me. So...as much as it _really_ pains me to say this..."

She took a deep breath and mumbled something.

"Sorry, what?" I asked.

"I said I need your..." she went back to mumbling.

"Again, one more time, what do you need?"

She growled at me viciously, pushed me to wall, and pinned me to it by my shoulders.

"I'm warning you, squid! Don't push me!" she snarled.

"I know what you want, Octavia," I said calmly while grabbing her arms. "I'd be happy to, but I'm busy with my own situation concerning my missing girlfriend. I want to find her above all else, and I'm sure that during my quest, I'll find her and Octave. However, if you want what I think you need from me, I just want you to say it. Otherwise, you won't get anything from me, and you'll truly be on your own. So, what is it that you need?"

She bared her teeth. We stared each other down. Neither of us would back down for a solid minute. Suddenly, Octavia bit her lip and closed her eyes tightly.

"ALRIGHT! I'LL SAY IT!" she shouted angrily and released me. She stared at me with hatred which then turned to desperateness. She fell to her hands and knees and looked at the floor. Then, with the utmost clarity, she said the words that I never expected her to say.

"Agent 3..." she started. She then looked up at me...and I saw a single small tear roll down her cheek. "...I need you help..."

I could see the look in her eyes. She really was alone in this situation, but she hated to admit it. I kinda felt sorry for her. I gave her an assured nod and stretched out my hand.

"That's all you needed to say," I said. "I'd be happy to help you, but if I do, you have to help me in return. Which means, we fight a common enemy instead of each other to save our loved ones. And this is permanent. Deal?"

She looked back and forth between my hand and me. Then she wiped the tear away and slowly grasped my hand and shook it.

I helped her to her feet.

"Wait," I said abruptly. "Other hand where I can see it."

She raised an eyebrow and raised her left hand.

"Just checking for no double-crossing..."

"Heh," Octavia said. "I gotta admit. You're good."

"I want an honest truce, Octavia," I said sternly. "I don't want to regret it later."

She glared at me but still kept her hand up.

"Deal..." she said albeit begrudgingly.

After she released, she then punched me in the stomach.

"OWWW! Why would you even do that?!" I said in pain while doubling over.

"Don't EVER force me to say something I don't WANT to say again!" she said furiously. "And if you ever tell anyone that I shed a tear during this 'meeting', you're _dead_! And yes, I mean DEAD, not 'splatted'. Got it?"

"Ah...got it...and my apologies for that..." I said while standing up straight. (Although...I could kinda tell she was holding back when she hit me.) "Anyway, I have an idea, and it might be beneficial to both of us."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Okay, while I'm doing my job of searching for Callie, and by extension Octave, I'm gonna need you to be the undercover agent. Try to blend in with the Octarian forces and keep me in contact in case you find something interesting."

"Um...number, please?" Octavia said as she pulled out as purple octopus-shaped cellphone. That left me a bit awestruck in silence for a second. "What?"

"Uh...it's...not important..." I said as I gave her my number.

"Alright, weirdo, but how do I get in?" she asked. "I'm splatted if I'm caught by Octavio or some other soldier."

"Hmm...can you...I don't know...disguise yourself or something? Like make yourself look like the other Octolings."

"Hmm...I think I can 'demote' myself, in a sense."

She then changed her hair color to a deep red and removed the seaweed stalks from her head.

"And for the final touch...these..." she said as she pulled out a pair of shades.

"What are those for?" I asked.

"Long story short, I'm gonna need these." She put them on. "And now, I'm officially another Octoling in the crowd. What now?"

"Just pretend your under Octavio's control and find out anything you can. If it looks important, send me a message ASAP."

"Got it. What're you gonna do?"

"I gotta report back to Agent 2 on what I found. And maybe tell her about this plan. Granted, for a couple of hours after telling her, she might hate me for coming up with it..."

"Why's that?"

"Again, not important. Just get going."

She nodded. She turned to leave, but before she did, I stopped her. She looked back at me over her shoulder.

"Look, I know this might be hard for you," I said, "but you need to stop living in the past like your grampa. Not all Inklings are bad. If you go to Inkopolis, no one's gonna treat you any differently. And once we find Octave, he can tell you from experience that what I'm saying is true."

I could see her slightly relax after I said that. She then said something else I never expected her to ever say.

"Um...thank you..." she said quietly. I could make out a small smile form on her face. Before I could comment, she changed into her octopus form and launched away.

"You're welcome..." I said. I couldn't help but kinda smile a bit. Not only was that the first sincerely nice smile she gave me, I finally understood why Marina looked so familiar. Their faces kinda looked similar especially when they smiled. I guess it's an Octoling thing...

I then launched back to Tentakeel Outpost slightly hoping that this truce won't come back to hurt me...

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ **And thus Octavia gets her turn as the rebel Octoling for this story. (Let's just hope Finley isn't playing with fire this time...)**

 **The next chapter should wrap up the flashbacks and go back (er, forward?) to the present time.**

 **Until then, I hope you liked this chapter and I'll see you all in the next one!**


	12. Food Fight

**_AN:_ Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it.  
**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 12: Food Fight

I landed back at Tentakeel Outpost and went to see Marie. She wasn't there for some reason. I looked at my phone and found a text that she sent me a few hours ago.

"I needed to get to the studio for a film session. Tell me what happened tomorrow."

"Really? At this hour?" I said in disbelief. "Oh, well...I guess that's enough searching for today."

As I left the canyon, I continued to worry about where Callie was. I knew the search just started, but I hated the thought of her being imprisoned or hurt. I decided to push away the negative possibilities.

"Octavio isn't that cruel, is he?" I thought. "He's probably just keeping her hostage, but hopefully he's not doing anything too bad..."

While trying to reassure myself, I went home after a long day.

Once I got to my apartment, I was reminded of my first day of school by an alarm on my phone. It was tomorrow.

"Wow, that came by fast," I said. "Might as well get ready."

I got ready for tomorrow, and I made a mental note to head back to the canyon after school let out. After that, I went to bed.

The next day, I was startled awake by the sound of my phone playing Callie's solo song, "Bomb Rush Blush". That song was so energetic that I used that as my alarm to motivate me to get out of bed. (It's not hard to believe that Callie was really happy when I told her I also use it as my ringtone for her.)

I got ready for the day and texted Marie to let her know what was happening. She seemed fine with it and told me to meet her at Inkopolis Square. I finished getting anything that I would need and headed for Inkblot Art Academy.

You probably already know how my first day went so I'll be brief on what I was thinking when I got there.

You could probably imagine my surprise when I saw Arthur in my class. After my encounter with those twins with red contacts, I was glad to know that he and Amy were going to the square anyway and decided to meet Marie once I got there. (And I feel like I should mention this little side note. Yes, I knew those twins had contacts on because their eyes were a darker shade of red. That let me know they weren't naturally colored red like mine.)

When we went into one of the shops, I got a message from Marie saying that she wanted to get searching again. I quickly left to go to the canyon, but I regretted not mentioning the situation to my friends. I made a note to tell them the next day. However, it seemed that luck was on my side when the two of them came to Octo Canyon anyway. Then...we got two new agents.

I would've helped them with their first mission, but Octavia messaged me about something interesting happening. Hoping to get more info on Callie's whereabouts, I headed off to meet her. Instead of clues, she showed me a young zapfish held captive in a glass bulb. This made me realize that the Octarians have stolen the zapfish...again. And off in the distance, I saw large sparks and a big tail thrashing around which led me to also realize that the Great Zapfish was also kidnapped again. Luckily, the small zapfish was easy to get, but I'd have to regroup and plan what to do if we were gonna save both the zapfish and Callie. It was great that I didn't need to explain the situation when I got back there.

Octavia agreed to keep searching and let me know of anything important she finds, and I went back to base.

Phew...alright...I think _now_ you're all caught up. Now back to what's happening in the present.

(Oh, right...um...end flashback...)

* * *

Amy and I landed in a pool of teal ink. We had changed ink colors unconsciously to match as usual. We stood on a floating platform with a launchpad in front of us. Ahead on a big arena was a large round puddle of Octarian ink near the edge with a zapfish floating over the center of it struggling to get out.

We launched over to the arena.

"Okay..." I said cautiously. "Past experience has taught me that when it's quiet like this and there's a zapfish just out in the open, something big is about to happen."

"Really?" Amy asked. "It doesn't look too bad. In fact, this ought to be-"

"NO! STOP! DON'T SAY IT!"

"What? 'This'll be easy'?"

"Yes...that..." I said quietly as I hung my head. I now feared for the worst.

Suddenly, a large octopus tentacle with a big green "X" rose out of the ink, snatched the zapfish, and brought it back down into the ink.

"Oh, no!" Amy exclaimed worriedly. She was about to go after it, but I held her back.

"Wait a sec," I said while pointing to it. "Look."

Small sparks came from the puddle. Then a bright light came on and a large tower-like structure rose out of the ink and had the tentacle on top of it. Also, there was a small figure standing on top by the tentacle.

Once the light underneath the big fthing went out, we got a clear look at the object.

It appeared to be a giant...oven...with several openings holding bread...with _faces_ on the ends of the bread angrily looking outside of the oven doors...

(I REALLY wish I was making that up, but sadly, I'm not...)

Amy and I stared at the monstrosity in front of us then looked at each other. I really began to wonder who's idea was it to make something like...that...

"What the halibut is that?!" we yelled.

We suddenly heard an ominous chuckle fill the air.

"Not again..." I groaned. "Alright, Octavio, we don't have time for anymore of your 'grand entrances'!"

"Right name," the voice said. "Wrong octopus."

The figure next to the tentacle stepped toward the edge of the machine revealing himself.

I had a serious chill go throughout my body when I saw that it was none other than Octave...

"OCTAVE?!" Amy and I shouted in surprise.

"Been a while, hasn't it?" he said with a wicked grin. He looked drastically different from before. He now wore Octoling armor like his sister, but had the glasses on already. He also had black pants and boots. What was really different about him was his hair. It now consisted of a single tentacle hanging slightly over his face sorta like a long mohawk or pompadour (the other three he normally had must've been cut off). It reminded me of the standard Octarian troops. Despite his new look, one thing was certain: he's not on our side at the moment.

"Octave, what are you doing?!" I yelled.

"Embracing my new role as a general. What do you think?"

"It's sick and twisted, dude! This isn't like you at all!"

"Wait, 'general'?!" Amy said. "What's he talking about?!"

"Oh, nothing," he said pretending to be innocent. "Well, anyway, as much as I'd love to see this battle, I got more stuff to do. Have fun with the Octo Oven! But don't worry, we're bound to see each other again. Later!"

He then launched away. I tried to call out to him, but he was already gone.

The Octo Oven's bread loaf faces extended out of the machine and each let out a roar at once. It started sliding toward us.

"Oh, this ain't good..." I groaned. "RUN!"

We split up and ran and swam on opposite sides of the giant oven. We started communicating through our headsets.

"Fin-er, I mean, Agent 3! What just happened?!" Amy asked in surprised. "I thought Octave was your friend! Why's he working against _us_?!"

"I have no idea!" I exclaimed. "But he's normally not like this. Something's not right about him."

"Oh! You think?!"

"Hey, I don't-WAH!"

One of the bread loaves shot out at me, but I dodged.

"Look, I'm mostly in the dark about this, too, okay?!" I admitted. "But we can probably worry about him later. We need to take this 'Octo-Oven'...thing...down, now!"

"But I thought you wanted me to stay back!" Amy said as she ran opposite from me.

"I think I'm gonna end up having second thoughts about that at some point," I said. "I'll need your help."

"Okay, but what do we do?"

"Past experience has also taught me to get that big tentacle on top."

"How?!"

"I don't know!"

Another one of the bread loaves shot out. I dodged out of the way again.

"Watch the octopus...bread...stuff! They shoot out!" Amy warned.

"Kinda found out already!" I said before another one shot out.

Soon, all of the loaves shot out and stayed put for some reason. The entire oven also stopped moving.

"I think it's jammed or something," I said. "Now might be our chance."

"Hey, I got an idea!" Amy said.

"I'd love to hear it," I said.

"I'll show you instead."

She inked the side of one of the loaves and swam on top of it. She then inked the actual side of the oven and swam up to the tentacle.

"Yes! It worked!" she cheered. She paused and then looked for me. "Uh, now what?!"

"Shoot the tentacle up there!" I shouted. "What else?!"

She saw it in front of her and continuously shot at it until it burst. Octarian ink shout up like a geyser.

"Got it!" she announced.

"Great! Now get away from it quickly! Super jump to me!"

Amy yelped as she launched toward me. After she landed, another tentacle sprouted up. Then three huge exhaust vents sprouted up around the machine and giant cylinders shot out from the top of the center of it. The Octo Oven bread let out more roars.

The two of us hid in our ink to think.

"What just happened?" Amy asked.

"Uh...the start of phase two?" I said uneasily. "At least we know what to do now."

"It might be a bit harder considering that the sides of the thing broke off a little."

I peaked up to see that she was right.

"Hmm...it still looks inkable…I think we'll manage. We just have to be smart."

Just as I said that, we heard the whirring of another machine...well, several, actually. They were large spinning columns of ink that surrounded the arena.

"And while being smart, let's also avoid those...things..." I said.

"Sounds like a plan."

"You ready?"

"As I'll ever be..."

We got out of our ink and split up again. While one of us mostly distracted the Octo Oven, the other tried to find a way up. This time I managed to get up on top and splatted the tentacle. I launched toward Amy and waited for the next tentacle to sprout up. Once it did, the bread extended out and each gained armor. They all roared again.

"Bread loaves...with armor...?" Amy said in confusion. "Uh..."

"I don't get it either..." I said equally confused. "But I think this is the last hit. After this, we're done."

"Great! Let's take it down!"

The oven then sprouted a big machine on it's side. Suddenly, that machine started pouring a steady stream of ink and began moving toward us...rather quickly may I add...

"Is that an 'ink-glazing' machine?!" I said as we swam from it.

"What _is_ this place? Some kind of-WHOA! HEADS UP!" Amy shrieked.

I looked forward as a small wall of three ink columns landed in front of me. They appeared so suddenly that I didn't have enough time to react and slammed into the barrier and fell over. As I tried to keep moving, the glazing machine splatted me. I respawned back at the platform.

"Ouch..." I said in slight pain. I saw Amy in the distance facing off with the oven.

The glazing machine had stopped. There was only a small portion of clear space left. She kept dodging the bread, and eventually all the bread shot out like normal. Without hesitation, Amy found openings to climb up the bread and to the top of the oven. She splatted the tentacle and launched away quickly.

And all this happened from the time I stood from the ink and launched over to her...

"Well, that was quick," I said in surprise.

"That wasn't too bad," she said happily. "We actually did it!"

We saw the bread loaves faces shift from angry to kinda scared. They all looked more burnt than they were originally. Each one shot out from the oven individually with a light groan. The oven shook violently and glowed a bright teal color.

"Oh, right!" I said remembering what happens next. "We might wanna get back. And I mean, WAY back!"

We moved back to the edge of the arena and sunk into our ink. We felt the ground shake, then suddenly stop. After a quiet second...

BOOM!

The Octo Oven exploded and splattered teal ink all over the ground. We could hear the loaves of bread scream as it did.

We slowly got out of the ink to see the zapfish in the center of the arena looking pretty happy to be out of the machine's clutches. The two of us went to the zapfish and broke it out of it's container. Amy held it in her arms and gave it a little loving nuzzle.

"Aw...glad you're okay, little guy," she said happily.

"Okay, _now_ we did it," I said with a sigh of relief as I pet it. "Let's get out of this Octarian bakery."

"Too bad we didn't find Callie here, huh?"

"Yeah...but I've learned this. When facing Octarians, things are never too easy..."

"Unless you have some help...am I right?"

"Heh, yeah. You did great for your first boss! Nice job!"

"Thanks! Oh, and we're not mentioning that I helped the whole time, right?"

"Oh, definitely not. I'll say I took care of it."

"And I'll say I was 'loafing' around." She smiled widely. I stared at her blankly. "Too soon?"

"Just a little. But Marie would be proud of you for that even if she won't admit it."

We laughed as we made our way back to base.

Although the way she was recruited wasn't what I had in mind, I honestly felt like I made a good choice in choosing Amy to begin with. If she can figure out how to take the boss down almost single-handedly, she has serious potential.

However, my thoughts shifted back to Octave. He really didn't sound like himself at all. He didn't even seem to be struggling to break free of his control either. I thought that for now, he might be our enemy until we can find a way to break him free. But I just knew that somewhere inside of him, he's struggling to gain control again...at least, I hope so...

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ **Well, the first boss is down, and an unexpected adversary emerged...**

 **(I can tell this is gonna be a longer story...)**

 **Anyway, from now on, the story will take place in mainly present time switching POV's between Fin and Arthur. And next up Arthur's gonna talk some more.**

 **Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you next time!**


	13. Working with a New Weapon

_**AN:**_ **And I'm back! Here's the next chapter for your reading pleasure. Hope you all will enjoy it.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 13: Working with a New Weapon

Arthur here...and once again, I'm here contemplating my poor life choices. By now, you might be asking me: "Hey, Arthur, why do you keep doing that? This situation could be a lot worse, right?"

I'll answer that by setting up the current scenario that I found myself in:

I'm in a octopus-themed canyon...with the job of rescuing a celebrity and a bunch of zapfish...who have all been kidnapped by a race of octopi...or more specifically sentient tentacles...

Crazy, right? No? Well, throw in the fact that the celebrity's cousin, who (dare I say it) I'm really starting to think I have a serious crush on, is the one who kinda got me into this situation. And right now, I'm alone with her because my friend who secretly did something like this before and my younger sister went on a mission to fight...something...

Now, tell me that that's not crazy, and I will gladly here a crazier story that you have. But enough of my rambling. Here's what happened after those two left...

Marie had walked off after my apparently "stupid" comment on whatever Finley and Amy were getting into.

"D-Did I say something wrong?" I asked nervously.

"Well, no..." Marie said while sighing. "It's just that...we kinda have a history with accidently jinxing stuff on this team..."

"Oh..." I said having no idea what she means. She could probably tell from the look on my face.

"Whatever. It's not too important. I'm just wondering what they're going through."

"Okay, then...so...what do we do until they get back?"

"Just talk, I guess. I know Fin will be able to handle whatever is down there. He's come out of some sticky situations before. How about we talk about how you got so skilled with a weapon?"

I was afraid of her asking that. I knew better than to lie to her, but the truth might make her upset, and I really didn't want to do that. And thus, I chose correctly.

"W-Well, uh, I did say I wasn't too used to weapons..." I said hesitantly. (You didn't expect me to lie, did you? I would never.)

"But you did pretty good with the dualies and that shooter in the Turf War..." she said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well..." I said with a heavy sigh. "To be honest, I never actually picked up a weapon to actually use it against someone before."

"Huh?"

"You see, before today, I...never competed in a Turf War before today..."

Marie silently stared at me for a while.

"Never?" she said in disbelief.

I shook my head bashfully and lowered my gaze so she couldn't see the embarrassment on my face.

"I-I tried to tell you, but-" I tried to say. I looked up to see Marie look really disappointed. It honestly hurt me to see that. "I'm really sorry..."

"Oh...it's no trouble," she said hurriedly. "I'm just a little surprised is all. But hey, maybe this could be a good thing for both of us."

"How exactly?"

"I needed more agents to help me out. You need to build up your skills. This could be a good way to train you to use weapons properly both as an agent and as a regular Turf War player."

"Huh...that's pretty smart actually. Glad you're not just another pretty face..."

Marie looked a little stunned and started blushing. I took me about three seconds to realize what I said.

"You...think I'm pretty?"

"W-Well, uh...a-as the idol that you say you are, I-I-I'd say that you kinda have to be, right? Heh heh..."

"Hmm...well, I suppose so..." she said almost sadly.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I yelled in my head at myself. "Why didn't I just go with it?!"

We looked away from each other shyly.

"Um..." Marie said while slowly making her way to the cabin. "I'm gonna call Sheldon. I don't know why, but I have a feeling that we're gonna need more weapons."

"You must really not like Octarians..."

"Would you still like them if they took your sister?"

"Hmm...I wouldn't at first. But then I would remember that I'd have a place to myself if she was gone."

Marie's eyes grew wide in shock, and she stared at me.

"Too far?"

"Don't ask me. Ask her." She pointed behind me. I instantly knew why...

"She's behind me...isn't she...?"

Marie walked backward toward the cabin.

"You...JERK!" Amy yelled angrily behind me. I felt a hit at the back of my head, and I fell forward to the ground. Then a bunch of softer hits followed as she pinned me down with her body.

"I was kidding! Stop, this kinda hurts, you know?!" Really, it didn't. She wasn't hitting me hard enough to actually cause me any serious pain. (The first hit actually did kinda hurt, though...)

"I'll make it hurt worse!" she screeched.

"Come on, let him get up," Finley said nonchalantly. "You know he didn't mean it."

He then grabbed her by her arms and pulled her off my back.

I got up and started chuckling.

"Amy, I was just joking. I'd do anything to save you," I said.

She pouted and folded her arms...but she couldn't hold a straight face for too long. She started cracking up and burst out laughing. The rest of us joined her.

"Well, I see the mission was a success," Marie said.

"You bet," Fin said while holding the zapfish. "I'll put him with the others."

"While you do that, I'm calling in the heavy artillery."

"Sheldon?"

"Bingo."

Marie went to some kind of radio and turned it on.

"Sheldon?" she said through a mic. "Can you hear me? Over!"

After a bit of static, Sheldon's voice came through.

"Loud and clear, Marie. Over." he said. "Oh, man, this is so cool!"

"Uh...does he know about all of...this?" I asked.

"Marie informed me of the whole situation earlier. I'm here to help you guys out."

"Well, that answers my question..."

"So you'll let us use some of your weapons?" Amy asked excitedly.

"Yes...well, more like borrow. I'm not exactly just going to give you any weapon at my disposal. I still have a business to run, you know?"

"Oh..."

"Yeah...forgot to mention that..." Marie said sheepishly.

"This'll be a mutual benefit. Although I am honored that my weapons will be used as part of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, I still need some data to perfect my weapons. And you guys need some extra firepower. See where I'm going?"

"I think so..." I said. "We use the weapons, and you collect the data as we use them."

"Exactly. Oh, yeah! And if I get enough data, I'll put these weapons in retail. And you can use them whenever you want."

"After we buy them..." Fin added while rolling his eyes.

"You got it!"

"Of course," I said. "So will you bring the extra weapons?"

"I'll be there in a bit."

"Alright, Sheldon," Marie said. "We'll see you then. Over and out!"

She then hung up.

"So now that that's settled, how'd the mission go? Anything interesting happen?"

Amy and Finley's eyes grew wide in surprise...and a bit of nervousness...

"O-Oh! Uh..." Finley said while sharing an uneasy glance with Amy. "It was...eventful..."

"Well, you got the zapfish anyway," I said. "Anything else happen?"

"Well...uh..." Amy mumbled. "We _did_ see someone. But it wasn't Callie, though..."

"Who else?" Marie asked.

"Um...think 'nice octopus'..." Fin suggested. After a bit of thought, Marie took a guess.

"...Octave?" she said.

They nodded slowly.

"Okay, so what's the problem?" I asked. "He can probably help us out, too. Right?"

"Not exactly..." Finley said hesitantly. "You see..."

"He's not working with us anymore," Amy said while biting her lip.

"What do you mean?"

"He was there when we fought this giant oven, but he seemed to be sided _with_ the Octarians now..."

"You mean..." Marie started. "He's fighting _against_ us?!"

"Yeah..." they said sadly.

"Willingly?!" she added still in disbelief.

"Now, Marie, wait," Finley said. "He can't willingly be doing it. He's probably under Octavio's control again. This time it seems that he might be too far gone."

"Let's hope so. I still can't believe it. First, Callie's disappearance. Then, the zapfish get captured again. And now, Octave's back to being an Octoling soldier. What's next?!"

"Technically, he's a general, but that's not important. We need to save him, too."

"I'm all for it," Marie said.

"Us, too," I said.

"Wow," Amy said. "You're finally getting into this, bro!"

"Oh, stop..."

"Heh. But I still have a question, though, Fin."

"What is it?" he said.

"I never got a chance to ask, but when you called out 'Octavio', why did Octave say that you had the right name but the wrong octopus?"

Finley looked a little more startled by the question.

"Um...I-I'm not sure. M-Maybe he misheard me...or something..."

"Now that you mention it, Amy," Marie said. "Their names do sound a little similar. And that brings another question to mind. Fin, who told you earlier that they might have spotted Callie? I really thought Octave was your main inside-man."

"I...uh, know another Octoling..." he said uneasily. "But she's helping me as long as I help her."

"What?" we all asked in confusion. "Who?"

"Yeah...I forgot to mention a lot of stuff to you guys earlier. We have help from a...different source now..."

Finley then told us about his earlier scouting missions and his meeting with this Octavia girl. I was surprised to know two things. One, Octave has an older sister. And two, that she was so determined to get her brother back to normal that she was willing to work with Inklings to do it. After Fin was done, he looked a bit more relieved.

"That Octoling must really be nice," Amy said.

"Oh...heh, um...I beg to differ..." Fin said with a nervous chuckle. "She can be quite...frightening if you push her too far...or if she's actively trying to hurt you."

"'Actively trying to hurt you'?" Marie repeated in a low voice. She then looked as if something just occurred to her. "Wait a minute. She's that 'Elite Octoling' that attacked us when we first met Octave, isn't she?"

"Uh...yeah."

"You sure we can trust her? She seemed like she personally had it out for you..."

"You should've seen her. She was desperate for my help. She didn't want to admit it, but she was. Even though back then, she and I didn't really see eye-to-eye and most likely still don't, I couldn't just leave her. Besides, even if she didn't want to help, Octave's still our friend, and we need to save him."

"Okay...I trust your judgement. But, just...keep an eye on her. I'm not sure if I trust her just yet."

"You said the same thing about Octave once. But to be honest, I'm not sure if I do either..."

After hearing Amy and Finley's tale of their encounter with the "Octo Oven" (still can't believe that it's a true story...), he suggested that we go to another section deeper in the canyon to continue looking for Callie and possibly more zapfish. He said that he'd been to the areas with the most Octarian activity, and the next place was a good super-jump away, but he installed a launchpad to get there quicker. We all agreed to move to that area and search more.

"I'll stay up here and watch things through your headsets," Marie said.

"What if some of them come here and attack you?" I asked.

"Don't worry. I can hold my own. If not, you'll hear a bunch of screaming, and if that happens, get here ASAP."

"Got your charger?" Finley asked.

"Yep."

"She's good, then," he said to us while shrugging. "Let's get moving."

Amy and I traded looks of confusion.

"Hey, she's great with those things," he continued. "She'll be fine."

"If you say so..." we said.

The three of us went to the launchpad, and we all launched to another area of the canyon.

* * *

The area we landed in was lower in the canyon from Tentakeel Outpost. It also seemed a bit bigger. There were several splotches of ink all around the ground like the outpost.

"Okay, Agent 3," I said. "Where are we now?"

"Not sure," Finley said. "But this is the second place I found."

"What's that sign say?" Amy asked.

"What sign?" Fin and I said. Amy pointed to a big sign that mapped the whole place out.

"Don't know how I missed that..." Fin said in confusion.

There was some kind of language written on it, but it was most likely written in Octarian, so none of us could read it.

"Let me see it," Marie said through our headsets. We all got closer to the sign for her to read it through them. "I know a little Octarian, but I'm a bit rusty. I think it says...'Suction-Cup Lookout'..."

"We are definitely in Octarian territory," Finley said. "All of this ink and machinery didn't just appear out of thin air."

"So, where should we start?" I asked.

"Hmm...how about we split up to cover more ground? Each of us take a kettle and rescue a zapfish. And keep a lookout for Callie or Octave."

"You sure splitting up is a good idea?"

"Well, it should be simple enough. Octarian troops don't have super-effective weapons. Well, most don't anyway."

"We could tell," Amy said.

"I suppose it might be a good idea to split up for now. But wait, what about Sheldon?"

"He's still not here yet," Marie said. "But he'll send you guys weapons that he needs more data on while you're in the Octarian domes."

"How?" we all asked.

"You'll see."

"Okay," Finley said. "In the meantime, let's get moving."

"Right," Amy and I agreed.

We went to separate kettles, and each of us dove into one.

* * *

In retrospect, I really should've payed more attention to which kettle I was going into because the one I went into was like the big onw the other agents went into earlier. I dreaded what was going to happen as I went down into wherever I was going.

I landed at a teal respawn point and saw a large arena ahead with a big Octarian ink puddle. Before I launched to it, some kind of object flew past me. It was a drone carrying some kind of black case. The drone also looked like Sheldon's head which let me know that he had showed up. The drone landed near me.

"Agent 4," Sheldon's voice said through my headset. "Come in, Agent 4. Do you read me?"

"Uh, yeah, Sheldon," I said. "Loud and clear. So, what's this? A weapon?"

"Open the case and find out. I need more data on this weapon, so I'm gonna need you to use it for this mission."

"Okay..."

I wasn't too excited to use a different weapon after getting used to the Hero Shot I already had. Yet, I opened the case and in it was the handle of a roller. I attached a tube from my tank to the roller, and the actual roller part expanded from the opposite end of the handle and started dripping ink. I placed my Hero Shot back in the case, and the drone took it away. I stared at the now fully-formed roller.

"I didn't know that they could become so...compact..." I said in amazement. "That's pretty cool."

"You know how to use it?" Marie asked.

"Not really, but it's my sister's favorite weapon, and I've seen her use it plenty of times. I think I got the general idea of how it works."

"Well, just in case, I should probably instruct you on how it works," Sheldon said. Before I could stop him, he gave a "brief" overview of what it can do. He also mentioned the new vertical swing that he added to the roller.

After he was done (or rather after Marie cut him off), I launched toward the arena. A trapped zapfish came down on a cord, and Octave was holding onto the cord while standing on top of it. They were right. He was on the Octarian's side. He did look kinda sinister in his new outfit...but oddly, kinda cool...

"So," he said. "You must be the other new agent. I remember you. Arthur, right?"

"Um...I'm surprised you remember me..." I said uneasily. "But, I'm now called Agent 4..."

"Oh, really?" he said sarcastically. "How funny. You know, I was temporarily called Agent 4 because I helped your team before. However, when I look back at it, I'm actually glad that it didn't stick with me. Otherwise, I'd have to face this big guy..."

He whistled. A big tentacle with a green 'x' grabbed the zapfish and pulled it into the ink. Sparks came from it, and a bright light came on from under it. Then a large round silhouette holding what looked like a roller rose out of the ink. The figure then made a weird battle cry and slammed the weapon down. The lights went out revealing the figure which was a very...uh...round Octarian samurai with a biker jacket...riding a really small unicycle. (I kinda wish I was making that up. I would've laughed at him if my life wasn't in possible danger at that moment.)

"We call this guy 'Octo Samurai'," Octave said. "I think you can guess why. He let's it be known to all that he splats with honor. And he'll be doing that to you in about..." He looked down at his imaginary watch. "Oh, I don't know. One or two seconds?"

"O-Oh...?" I said nervously.

"Have fun!" he laughed and launched away.

"Oh, I will..." I looked back at the giant samurai. "Not."

The Octo Samurai did a surprisingly big jump toward me, and I dodged toward the side while running with my roller. It was actually kinda heavy, but I started moving faster when I got momentum. He did his jumping attack a few more times to hit me, and he kept getting closer.

"Marie, are you seeing this?! What do I do?!" I asked frantically.

"Um...just try splatting him!" Marie said equally frantically. "Fling your roller at him!"

"I'll try..."

After stopping to catch his breath, I filled up on ink and swung my roller as quickly as I could at him repeatedly. He progressively got covered in teal ink as I did. When he got his second wind, he used his roller to counter against mine, and I got knocked backward.

"Wow...he recovered quickly..." I thought.

This cycle of him attacking and getting tired continued until I finally managed to splat him. Something flew up in the air and crashed down in a puddle of ink. It sorta looked like a smaller respawn point with exhaust pipes like you would see on a motorcycle. The big tentacle with the 'x' reappeared. My years of gaming have told me that if something like this appears after a big enemy gets stunned or something, it might be an obvious weak spot that could help me finally take it down. (Don't ask why that was the first thing that came to mind...)

I splatted the tentacle and launched back away from it in case I made a serious mistake.

The Octo Samurai then reformed and (after a bit of struggling) got out of the machine which formed back into his giant roller. The roller then turned up vertically and he slammed it on the ground with another battle cry. Suddenly, he hopped up and put his roller on the ground. It then transformed into a large motorcycle with the roller as the front wheel. He then charged at me at full speed.

"I thought training with new weapons was supposed to start off easy!" I said internally.

Needless to say, I was sunk.

Or so I thought...

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ **Well, it seems Arthur's in yet another predicament. We'll find out how he'll get through it next time.**

 **Until then, I hope you all liked this chapter (Review, follow, favorite, etc. if you want), and I'll see you all in the next one!**


	14. Sleeping with the Former Enemy

_**AN:**_ **After that cliffhanger, let's find out how it turns out. Hope you'll enjoy it.**

* * *

Splatoon 2 Next Wave

Chapter 14: Sleeping with the Former Enemy

As Octo Samurai charged at me with what I'm just gonna call his "Octo-cycle" (I know, it's ridiculous), I found myself frozen in such crippling fear that I could barely move. Surely, this had to be it for me...

However, something...or rather _someone_...miraculously appeared and pushed me out of the way before the samurai ran me over...

I got knocked out of the way so hard that I lost my footing and fell on the ground. Octo Samurai missed me, and he got back onto his unicycle ready to attack again.

"What...just happened?!" I said in shock.

"I saved you from getting steamrolled, squid," a female voice said bluntly. "That's what happened."

I turned to see an octopus girl with teal hair holding a large brush. She had her own ink tank and wore some weird armor, and she looked ready for a fight. I stared at her in surprise.

"Well, don't just sit there! Get up!" she yelled. "We gotta take this guy down! And fast!"

She roughly pulled me up to my feet and shoved my roller into my arms.

"W-Who are-?" I tried to say.

"Look alive! He's coming again!" she said as she put her brush down and ran off.

Octo Samurai made another battle cry as he tried to hit me again. This time I took off running with my roller. I decided to ask about that girl later. For the moment, I focused on surviving.

After jumping a few more times and performing a bunch of these odd spinning attacks, he got tired. The octopus girl and I attacked him again until he got splatted. We splatted the tentacle weak-spot and launched from it.

When we landed, Octo Samurai respawned and his roller began to spin as he raised it again. He made another battle cry as he slammed the roller down. A big wave of ink came toward us quickly.

"Watch out!" we said as we dodged the wave.

Two more waves followed. He then got onto his Octo-cycle and tried to run us over again. Although he was moving a lot faster than before, we still attacked at any opening we had. I kept swinging my roller and the octopus girl kept swinging her brush.

We almost splatted him, but he made a surprise spin attack. I managed to get out of range of the swing, but she wasn't so luck.

"AARGH!" I heard the girl yell as she got hit hard by the roller and tumbled onto the ground on the other side of the arena. She didn't move after that.

"Okay, I think it's time I put an end to this!" I said starting to get irritated with this whole showdown. I kept dodging his attacks and attacked him until he got splatted again. After I attacked the tentacle and splatted it, I launched to the girl's side. Octo Samurai didn't reform after this hit. Instead, his respawn machine just started shaking and glowing my ink color. It eventually exploded, showering teal ink everywhere.

The whole area was now quiet. All that was left were me, the girl, and the imprisoned zapfish. After I got the zapfish, I went back to wake the girl up.

"Miss?" I said while gently shaking her. "Are you okay?"

"Ugh..." she groaned. "What hit me...?"

"A huge roller/motorcycle hybrid? Or something..."

"Oh, my head...where's that stupid samurai? I'm gonna-" She paused and looked around in astonishment. "Um...what happened? And where'd all this ink come from?"

"I...beat him."

She raised an eyebrow at me in confusion.

"You? By yourself?" she said in disbelief. "If it weren't for me, you probably would've been crushed flat. You _somehow_ managed to hold your own?"

"Uh...yeah..."

"Hmm...I'd say I'm impressed, but I saw you shaking like a leaf, so...nope."

"Okay, then...mind telling me who you are then? And why would you-an Octarian-helped me?"

"First, specifically I'm an Octoling. Second, name's Octavia. And third, long story short, I'm helping you because I'm trying to get my brother back."

"Oh, right. Agent 3 told us about you."

"Speaking of the jerk who got me into this, could you take me to him? I need to talk to him."

Uh...sure. Follow me."

With the zapfish in my arms and her following me, we made our way back to Suction-Cup Lookout.

* * *

When we arrived, we saw Finley waiting for us. He was holding a charger and a zapfish.

"There you are!" he said when he saw me. "What happened to you? We couldn't reach-"

He froze when he saw Octavia.

"Octavia? What are you doing here?"

"She kinda helped me out..." I explained. "She wanted to talk to you."

"About...?"

"Our original plan," she said. "Someone found out that I wasn't hypnotized and ratted me out. I had to get as far away from there as possible before I got captured. So, with no other options, I decided to find you. But I ran into this idiot instead..." She pointed to me.

"Unnecessary..." I mumbled.

"Oh, trust me, it was necessary. Anyway, he was in trouble, and against my better judgement, I decided to help him."

"Oh, well...good job, I guess," he said. "So what're you gonna do now?"

"I have nowhere else to go," Octavia said while folding her arms and sighing heavily. "So...I guess I'm stuck with you two guys..."

"Well, three..." I said. "Speaking of which, where's Agent 5?"

"Right here!" she said behind me.

She came up to us holding a pair of dualies and a zapfish and looked at Octavia.

"Oh, you must be Octavia," she said. "Nice to meet you in person."

"Yeah, hi," the Octoling said while rolling her eyes.

"Um...okay...so how'd the missions go?"

"Good enough...I guess," Fin said. "Although, something weird happened when I was coming back up here. I heard a voice come into my headset, but it wasn't Marie, Sheldon, or Octavio. It was garbled but feminine...and kinda familiar..."

"You think it might've been Callie?" I asked.

"I hope so. Maybe she's trying to tell us something. I lost the signal after a bit. Speaking of headsets...what happened to yours?"

"Huh?" I pulled off my headset and discovered that my headset had been slightly damaged. "Oh...that probably happened when I got pushed by her...I was wondering why Marie was so quiet."

"I can fix them," Octavia said.

"You can?"

"Yeah, I know a thing or two about machinery. Give me a second."

She snatched the headset out of my hands and turned from us. After about thirty seconds, she turned back and tossed them to me. I put them back on, and they worked perfectly.

"Wow...thanks," I said.

"Don't mention it," she said. "And I mean that. Do NOT mention it. It's already bad enough that I'm helping you guys in the field. I don't need fixing your gadgets on the list, too."

"Um..."

"Don't mind her, dude," Fin said.

"...Well, we might as well bring these zapfish back to Marie, right?"

"Yeah, but luckily, we don't have to go far."

"What?" we all asked.

Finley brought us around a corner. Waiting there were Marie and the big tank of zapfish behind her. She waved when she saw us.

"How did-?" Amy started.

"Ah!" Marie said to cut her off. "It's a secret."

"No, it isn't. I'll tell you later," Finley said as he put the retrieved zapfish into the tank. "Oh, yeah. Intros. Marie, Octavia. Via, Marie."

"Pleasure to meet you," Marie said somewhat half-heartedly.

"Wish I could say the same," Octavia said rather snobbishly (and earning a nasty glare from Marie in response). "And did you just call me 'Via'?"

"Why not?" Fin said. "Too personal?"

"Hmm...actually, 'Via' isn't bad...Octave calls me that sometimes. You guys can, I guess."

"Finally, you're warming up to us."

"Don't push it."

"Sorry."

"Okay, Via..." Marie said. "Glad you're helping."

"Yeah, well, don't get the idea that you're my new boss or anything. After we get Octave back, you guys are on your own."

"Well, we'd better get moving quickly then," I said. "Right?"

"I suppose," Via said. "We're lucky we can move on now. You beat the boss of this area."

"Wait, what?"

"The Octo Samurai. He was in charge of this area, and he was essentially the last line of defense. Now that you beat him, the Octarian troops don't know what to do. They'll most likely-"

A loud rumbling came from another kettle near us interrupting her. The grate on top of it opened and several small zapfish popped out of it. They fell into the tanks with big splashes.

"They'll most likely surrender and retreat further down into the canyon..." Via continued awestruck. "Although, I've never seen that happen before..."

"There's a first time for everything," Amy said while shrugging. "Are those zapfish?"

"They're mini-zapfish," Marie explained. "Their power output is weaker, but eight of them are the equivalent to one normal-sized zapfish. How many are here?"

We counted eight more in the tank.

"Nice!" I said. "But weren't there more?"

Three more zapfish launched up from different kettles. They each fell toward us.

"Heads up!" Finley shouted.

He caught one. Via caught the second. The third...unfortunately...hit me in the face knocking me onto the ground...then Amy caught it.

"Just once..." I groaned while getting up. "Can't I catch a break today just once...?"

"Well, we've been through a lot today," Marie said. "Maybe a break _would_ do us some good. Let's head back to the cabin."

"But what about the tank?" I asked. "We can't just leave it here."

"We got it covered. That's all you need to know."

"I'll tell how that works later, too," Fin said.

"Would you stop telling all the secrets?!"

"I will...when we stop having so many."

As they continued bickering about what is considered a secret and what isn't, we all launched back to Cuttlefish Cabin.

* * *

By now, the sun was setting. While Marie and Amy were talking, I decided to ask Finley a few questions about Via.

"Hey, Fin, you got a minute?" I asked.

"Sure, what's up?" he said.

I glanced at Via who was sitting at the edge of the floating platform of land that we were on and was watching the sunset.

"No offense to her, but why is Via so..."

"Rude? Mean? Harsh?"

"Yeah. All of those. Does she just not like us or something?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm pretty sure she doesn't like Inklings as a whole."

"But why?"

"From what I can tell, she grew up hearing about the Great Turf War. I guess it kinda made her have a dislike for Inklings considering what we kinda did to her and her people..."

"Oh, right...but still, she shouldn't hold a grudge like this for so long. We're not monsters or anything. Besides, no one else really remembers that war anyway."

"Except the ones who lost it..."

"Oh, well, yeah...good point..."

"Still, I think she just needs to see how Octolings and Inklings can get along. I mean, look at Off the Hook. Pearl and Marina get along just fine."

"True...Via just needs some hard evidence..."

"I think I have a way that I can show her that we're right. But we'll need Octave for it. He might be able to convince her."

"It amazes me that she wants to help him so much that she's willing to work with Inklings to do it. She must really care about him."

"'Willing' is a strong word, but I guess you're right..."

He then paused. Via looked back at us for a moment then quickly back at the lowering sun. Fin then hummed in thought.

"Hmm...you know what I think?" he said.

"What?" I asked.

"I think she's just scared."

"Of what?"

"Us. Inklings. Those war tales and stuff left an imprint on her. She acts tough and everything, but she's probably using that to mask her fears."

"What does she think we might do to her? We're not gonna hurt her or anything...right?"

"No. Not unless she turns on us. But seeing as she's outnumbered, she wouldn't have a chance anyway."

"True. Was Octave like this when you guys first met?"

"Not exactly. He was a lot nicer. But he was also kinda frightened. They did have the same upbringing, so it makes sense."

"I feel a bit sorry for her...maybe we could talk to her to have her lighten up. She doesn't have to live her life in fear of us. If anything, we could be friends."

"I like that wishful thinking, Arthur, but maybe it's better to let her ease into the idea. She needs to learn that we're not as bad as she thought. We could help prove it, but let's not try to force a friendship. Besides, I'm not risking her strangling me or something if we're wrong about her."

"Why you specifically?"

"I'm starting to think that she has it out for me because I was the first one to splat her."

"Or maybe she kinda likes you, but she's not gonna let anyone notice. Not even you."

"If that's the case, please, push me off this platform."

"I would never."

"Fine. I'll ask Marie to do it."

We both chuckled.

"Hey, guys!" Amy called to us. "We got sleeping areas ready."

All three of us went back and saw some blankets laid out on the ground with stuffed replicas of zapfish wearing little captains hats.

"They're not the best," Marie said. "But it's all we got..."

"Good enough," Finley said. "Some of us can share. I call this one!"

He jumped onto one of them, laid on his back, and laughed triumphantly.

"Okay...two guys and..." I started. I didn't take into account that there were three girls left. "Um...how is this gonna work?"

"Ugh..." Via groaned in frustration. She quickly snatched a zapfish toy and went over a little ways from us. She lied down, gave us one last annoyed glare, and turned from us quickly.

"That seemed a little rude..." Marie said. "What's her problem anyway?"

"If you can't tell, she's not very fond of Inklings..." I said.

"Let's just give her some space," Finley said. "She's also kinda been through a lot. She sorta lost someone she cared about, too."

Marie then looked at Via and started looking sympathetic.

"I guess you have a point..." she said.

"Oh, well, I say we all rest for tonight. 'Early to bed; early to rise.' Am I right?"

All of us agreed, and we all got ready for bed.

Once we were all done, everyone else went to sleep. I, on the other hand, started going over what happened over the course of the day, and I felt kinda good. I managed to live this long after becoming an agent, and I took down a boss (with some help, but you get the idea). Overall, my spirits were lifting. As long as we keep our heads, we could get Callie, Octave, and all the zapfish back. I might need more weapon practice, but otherwise, I felt good overall. I went to sleep hoping that everything will work out in the end.

* * *

The next morning, I woke up to see Marie missing. I got up and looked around to find her looking at Inkopolis in the far distance. I walked over to her.

"Morning, Marie..." I said with a yawn. She kinda jumped when I spoke.

"Oh, hi, Arthur," she said. "Didn't see you there. Have a nice sleep?"

"Well, for being one of the first times that I've slept on solid ground, it wasn't that bad. You?"

"Meh...I wanted to sleep more, but I couldn't. I'm still wondering how Callie's doing..."

"Hey, I bet she's fine. We're still gonna do whatever we can to find her. We'll make things right again."

"I hope. Wow, you've really gotten more...upbeat since you joined the team. What changed?"

"I've been in some crazy situations since the moment I saw Finley at school. Frankly, I think I'm used to it. But there's always more surprises that can appear. So I'm gonna try to make the best of it."

"Heh, I think Fin's rubbing off on you."

"Maybe."

We both chuckled. My hearts couldn't stop pounding really hard. My hands got a bit sweaty, but somehow I kept my composure. Seeing her in the rising sunlight made her look really pretty...well, prettier.

"Y-You..." I started to say quietly. "Y-You...look really n-nice in that k-k-kimono..."

Her ears perked up a bit.

"You think so...?" she said while looking down at her outfit. "Oh...thank you. And, um...your suit looks good on you. Makes you look...heroic..."

She blushed a little bit. I felt myself blush as well.

"Um...thanks..." I said bashfully.

Internally, I was struggling to say the right words to tell he how I felt about her. Something meaningful, but not overbearing. However, nothing came to mind, and we sorta just stood there in an awkward silence. I guess it was kind of a good thing that Amy showed up to break the awkwardness...

"Morning, guys," she said while stretching. Once she saw our red faces, a wide grin came on her face. "What're you two up to...?"

Marie and I looked at each other quickly then back at her.

"Uh, NOTHING!" we said hurriedly. We both tried explaining what we were doing, but it became obvious that she wasn't buying any of it. In the end, she just giggled mischievously, and we both blushed even more.

"Is there something you want, Amy?" I said impatiently. "Or did you just come to annoy us?"

"Oh, no," she said while still calming herself. "I came to tell you that I think Finley needs some help. He's in a worse problem than this."

"Huh? Is he alright?" Marie asked worriedly.

"He's...well, you might wanna see for yourself. It's actually kinda funny."

We all went back to where Finley was sleeping, but instead of Finley, we found Via in his spot still sleeping. She had pulled the blanket up to her neck. A reddish-purple tentacle poked out from beneath the cover and moved frantically. I removed the blanket, and to our surprise, we saw Via cuddling Fin in his squid form in her arms like a toy. He was pressed hard into her chest, and he continued turning more red.

"Help...me..." I heard him whisper as he still tried to get out of her grasp. He stared at us with pleading eyes.

All of us tried to keep from laughing, but he was not amused.

"Would you quit laughing and get her to let go of me?!" he yelled in hoarse tone. "This isn't comfortable!"

"Alright, alright," Marie said. She went to wake up the sleeping Octoling. "Hey, Via...time to get up..."

Via groaned and turned away with Finley still in her arms. We all then shook her awake.

"Oh..." she groaned sleepily. "Okay, okay, I'm up...what do you want...?"

"We'd like you to try to let go of Fin if you don't mind," I said.

"Huh?" She looked in her arms and paused when she saw the poor squid buried into her chest. He looked up at her, and she stared back at him in shock. Her whole face turned red as she threw him away from her with a loud shriek. Fin landed on the ground and gasped for air as he changed into his human form and sat up quickly.

"Finally!" he said before lying on his back again. "Via, if you wanted to sleep on something more comfortable instead of the ground, you should've just asked!"

"H-H-How did I end up over here?!" she shouted in horror. "I never moved!"

"You had to have moved at some point. But my only question is, why were you holding-WAAH!"

Via had rushed to him and started trying to hit him with her brush. He took off running with her on his heels.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" she yelled furiously.

"BUT I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" he yelled over his shoulder as he kept running. " _YOU_ WERE HOLDING _ME_!"

"LIAR!"

"We should probably stop her before she actually catches him..." Amy said.

"Yeah, you're right..." Marie said while holding up a phone.

"Are you seriously recording this right now?!" Finley yelled at her.

"This'll be a great video for later."

"JUST CUT THE CAMERA AND HELP ME!"

"Don't worry, I got this," Amy said. She pulled out her phone and pulled up a picture of Via holding him. "Hey, Via! Look at this!"

Finley ran behind us, but before Via could do anything, Amy showed her the picture. The Octoling stared at it for a full minute as her expression turned from angry to surprised and confused.

"Is...Is that...me?" she said in disbelief. "What am I doing...?"

"You tell us!" Finley said while panting.

"I...guess I thought you were that toy..."

"Do I look like one to you?!"

"Well...um...just make sure you're not so close to me in the future. I move a lot in my sleep."

"You couldn't have told us earlier? Oh, forget it. I'll remember..."

He paused and looked at her for moment. She had removed her armor and belts sometime during the night, and she was simply wearing a black top and shorts. (She actually had a surprisingly nice figure...)

"Quit staring!" Via snapped as she covered herself. Her face turned more red.

"I'm not," he said. "I've just never seen you in daylight. Usually, it's at night or close to it."

"Oh, whatever. Can we just move on?"

"Sure. This never happened."

"Right," everyone agreed. Although, Marie and Amy were struggling to keep from smiling. Via shot daggers at them.

"Um...how about we get an early start and head to the next area?" I said.

"Yes! Please!" Fin exclaimed.

With this moment of awkwardness over, we all got ourselves ready. Finley showed us where to super jump, and Via and Amy left for the third area. I couldn't stop myself from asking Finley an important question once we were about to follow them.

"So..." I started while trying to keep from laughing.

"What is it?" he asked.

"She was holding you pretty closely..."

"Yeah...it was...strange, but felt nice in a weird way..."

I looked at him and grinned.

"What?!"

"Pardon me for asking...but...ahem...how...soft were they?" I whispered in his ear. (I'm sorry! I couldn't resist, okay?! I was curious!)

"How soft were-?"

Suddenly, it occurred to him what I meant. His tentacles (which had turned cyan earlier) started turning purple and stood on end.

"I'm gonna wisely choose NOT to answer that! Not now or ever!" he said while turning from me in annoyance. He launched away quickly, and I followed.

If this was how the day started, it made me wonder how things will go for the rest of it.

* * *

 _ **AN**_ **:** **Well, that was something...let's see how things turn out for the New Squidbeak Splatoon's trip to Beaker's Depot. They'll be fine with Via on their side...probably...**

 **Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter (Review, favorites, etc. are welcome.), and I'll see you in the next one.**


	15. A Friend's Return

_**AN**_ **: Here's the next chapter. Hope you'll enjoy it.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 15: A Friend's Return

Finley and I landed on another giant floating area. Amy was nowhere to be found. Via was kneeling by the largest kettle examining it.

"Uh, Via?" I asked. "What're you doing?"

"If you must know," Via said with an exasperated sigh. "I'm trying to find a way to break this thing open so we won't have to search for every zapfish here to open it."

"You think you can do it?"

"Maybe we could help?" Fin suggested.

" _You_ can keep your hands to yourself!" Via snapped at him viciously. Fin raised his hands in defense and backed away from her. "I'll handle this. Both of you can just go find more zapfish like that other agent did. I'll stay here and work on this."

"You sure?"

She ignored us and continued examining the big kettle. We shrugged and headed back to find some kettles.

"Hmm...which one might be easier for me...?" I said.

"Well, honestly," Finley said, "I think they're all the same level of difficulty. We just hope we get an easier zapfish to get."

"Great...how about that one?" I pointed to one nearby.

"Why not?"

"Before you go," Marie said through our headsets slightly startling us, "why don't you guys arm yourselves with some different weapons? Sheldon needs more data."

"Uh...good idea, Marie," Finley said.

Sheldon's drone came to us and delivered two pairs of dualies to us. We took the dualies and placed our previous weapons into the case they came in. The drone beeped and flew off.

"Thank you kindly!" Sheldon said through our headsets. "Now, allow me to introduce the Hero Dualies!"

"Here we go..." I groaned to myself.

Sheldon gave us the whole lecture on how dualies worked. After he was done, Fin and I looked at the weapons closely. He actually looked a little excited.

"I actually wanted to try these out," he said with a small grin. "They looked pretty good and useful. That 'dodge-roll' thing seemed pretty cool, too."

"Yeah..." I said. "You ready?"

"Let's do this."

We both dove into the kettle. We landed in another light blue respawn point. We seemed to have landed at some kind of indoor bike track.

"Alright, where are we?" I asked.

"Huh...that's strange..." Finley said. "Marie, are you seeing this?"

"Yeah...this place looks like Humpback Pump Track..." she said. "But that place is back in Inkopolis."

"Did they make some kind of replica of the place? If so, that's just weird..."

"Maybe they like biking or something," I said. "But what are those lights up ahead?"

I pointed to multiple lights shining in the distance. Each one came from a glowing container of some sort.

"Those are...hey, they're mini-zapfish!" Fin exclaimed. "Eight of them if I'm counting the spotlights correctly."

"So we just have to grab them and get out of here. This should be-"

"Hold that thought! Look!"

We saw another Octoling girl with red hair spraying ink around the area ahead of us.

"Octolings?" I said.

"Yep. And look who else is here."

Far into the distance, we saw Octave also walking around inking everything. He also seemed to be barking some orders to more Octolings.

"Okay," Finley said. "With him here, this might be our chance to get him back to normal. But we're gonna have to be really careful."

I nodded in agreement.

"I got a plan. I'll try to talk some sense into him, and in the meantime, you get those mini-zapfish."

We put the plan in motion. I ran to the first mini-zapfish and broke it out. Fin went to confront Octave.

By the time I got to the third zapfish, Finley was yelling for me which told me that the plan had sunk...

"Okay, change of plans!" he exclaimed as he was running toward me. "We both get the zapfish and get the heck out of here!"

"What did he do?!" I asked.

"He's not listening to me! Run!"

A group of Octolings had started chasing us, and what happened next must've been a miracle. The two of us kept swapping between shooting at the Octolings and collecting the zapfish, and somehow we managed to not get splatted. We also splatted all the Octolings except Octave and another soldier.

"Alright, we got them all!" I said. "Now, let's get out of here!"

We hurried back to the respawn point with four zapfish each. We put the zapfish in another pipe that went back to the canyon and told Marie to pick them up. When we got to the last one, Finley was about to put it in when suddenly he burst into purple ink. He got splatted.

"Gotcha!" I heard Octave say. I turned to see him holding a black and purple charger and was standing overhead. The mini-zapfish fell onto the ground and before I could pick it up, he splatted me, too.

As we respawned, his remaining soldier stood by the zapfish. Finley and I stood up and got ourselves ready.

"Okay," Fin said to her. "We don't want any trouble. Just step away from the zapfish."

"Don't listen to him!" Octave shouted. "He's the enemy, and I'm your commander. Take that zapfish and don't let them have it!"

"Uh..." the Octoling said uneasily while looking between him and Octave. "I...I'm not so sure if this is-"

"You'll do what I say, or you'll answer to my grandpa! GOT IT?!"

"Grandpa?" I thought. "He couldn't possibly mean Octavio...could he?"

"Y-Y-Yes, s-s-sir..." she said in a high-pitched quivering voice. It almost sounded like she was about to cry.

She took the zapfish and swam away as quickly as she could.

"I'll go after her," Fin whispered. "When I get going, you deal with him. Get ready."

I nodded.

"Octave!" Fin said to him. "I bet that's the only shot you're gonna get on me. You just got lucky."

"Oh, yeah? Watch me!" he said defiantly. He aimed and fired at him. Fin dodged it perfectly.

"Oh...so close..." he taunted. "Later!"

He then took off swimming and running. Octave growled and went after him. I then followed Octave at a far enough distance so that he wouldn't notice me.

I got under him when he was in a ramp still aiming, and I wondered how I would get the attention off of Finley so he can get that zapfish back.

I then threw a splat bomb up to him and it hit him in the back, but it didn't detonate until it hit the ground. He turned around and started firing wildly.

"Who did that?!" he called out. "Oh, right...Agent 4...almost forgot about him. Alright, give it up! You're still a rookie. You have no chance against me."

As he gave his speech on his "superior" skills, I snuck up a wall to get near the ramp. He failed to notice that I was closer to him. Without the risk of getting too close, I rolled a bomb to his feet.

"Huh?" he said as he looked down. "Oh, no, you don't!"

He kicked the bomb away before it exploded. He aimed at me again.

"Uh-oh," I said. "Probably should've thought that through more."

"My sister told me she fell for something like that before. I learned to always be on my guard."

He smiled wickedly before taking aim to fire again. However, as he fired, something hit him in the back throwing off his aim.

"What the-?!" he shouted. "What now?!"

"Hey! Over here!" another voice shouted. Imagine my surprise when I saw Amy standing at the center platform taunting him. She held a big brush like Via's in one hand and was holding another bomb in the other.

"Oh, perfect," Octave groaned. "The other agent. I must admit. You got guts to do that. Too bad that means you just asked for me to splat you."

"Bring it! I like a challenge!" Amy said with confidence in her voice.

"Funny, so do I. So why don't I even the playing field...?"

Octave then slammed the back end of his charger on the ground, and the charged began to transform into another big brush like Amy's. Even she looked a little shaken by that.

"Didn't know it could do that, huh?" Octave said. He charged toward her, and the two of them went at it.

As they did, I watched the whole battle. They countered each other's attacks really well. It seemed like an even battle. I got a bit closer to the action but still kept my distance. Suddenly, Octave pulled a dirty trick and tripped Amy. She fell backward onto her back and dropped her brush. It landed in front of me. As I saw it fall, I heard Amy cry out in pain. Upon seeing her again, my hearts skipped a beat when I saw that Octave was standing on her hair tentacles keeping her pinned down.

"Well, well, well," he chuckled maliciously. "Guess you weren't much of a challenge..."

"You...jerk!" Amy said angrily through her teeth. "Get off!"

"Oh, don't worry. Getting rid of you is gonna be even more painful."

I couldn't watch this any longer. A wave of energy filled my body as I picked up her brush and got up the platform. Then, I charged toward Octave. I threw the brush at him, and he got stunned when it hit him. He swung his brush wildly, but I dodged-rolled under the brush and shot his face knocking his glasses off. He flew back off of Amy and off the platform.

"About time you showed up!" Amy snapped as she got up. "Couldn't have done that earlier?!"

"I thought you could handle him," I confessed. "Guess I was wrong. Sorry."

"I came to your rescue and-OW!"

She felt her hair tentacles and winced in pain. They looked a bit bruised.

"Ugh...that really hurt..." she groaned.

"Sheesh...he really did a number on them..." I said. I regretted not moving sooner to help her. "We'll get you back so you can heal up."

"Thanks. Hey, where _is_ Fin anyway?"

"He went to get the last mini-zapfish here. Another Octoling took it."

"Okay, g-" She paused and looked behind me. I turned to see Octave coming back up the platform. I got my dualies ready just in case.

"Oh...my head..." he groaned. He looked up at us in surprise. "What...happened?"

"Octave, stay back," I said while pointing one of the shooters at him. "Don't try anything else."

"Whoa! Wait a minute! I'm not going to. I'm fine now."

Amy wasn't too keen on listening to him because she immediately grabbed her brush and ran toward him. As Octave braced for another hit, Finley suddenly came in between the two and grabbed the brush before it hit him.

"What?!" Amy said in shock. "Finley?!"

"Chill out, Amy," he said. "He's not evil anymore. His glasses are off."

"Did you see what he did to my hair?!"

"He wasn't in his right mind! You can't fault him for that!"

Amy growled fiercely as she tried to pull her brush back. Finley looked very sternly at her and didn't let go of it.

"Lower the Hero Brush, Agent 5. I don't want this to get ugly," Marie said through our headsets.

Amy took a deep breath then slowly lowered it.

"Okay, fine..." she grumbled. "But I got my eye on you, Octo boy. I'll get you back for this damage."

Octave looked down uneasily.

" _I_ did that...?" he said in disbelief. "What've I been doing...?"

"Let's not dwell in the past, Octave," Finley said. "We're just glad you're back to your old self."

"But I feel terrible...I was fighting against all of you against my will. I would never want to hurt any of you, honestly."

"Yeah, well, you're a little late..." Amy said.

"Not helping," Fin said.

"Sorry..."

"No, I should be the one who's sorry..." Octave said sadly. "You have to believe I didn't want to do any of this. Octavio and his troops were too strong for me, and I couldn't-"

"Hey, it's cool," I said while resting a hand on his shoulder. "You were under his hypnosis, and we broke you out of it."

"And I got the last mini-zapfish here," Finley added while showing us. "I'd say this is a good turnout overall."

"I suppose..." Octave said. "But my head still hurts a lot..."

"Come on, let's get out of here so you two can get some rest."

"Sounds good to me..." Amy said while rubbing her sore tentacles.

"Oh, yeah, and your sister's waiting for you."

"Via?" Octave said. "Huh...well, what do you know...?"

* * *

When we all came back to the surface, we all fell into a big heap in our squid and octopus forms.

"About time!" Via said impatiently while coming to us. "You guys took forever! I got the big kettle open for you while you were gone. What took so-"

She froze when Octave turned back into his human form.

"O-Octave...?" she said quietly.

"I'm back, sis," he said with a small smile. "Miss me?"

She snarled angrily and smacked him.

"Ow..." he said while rubbing his cheek. "What was-Oof!"

Via cut him off by giving him a tight hug. Octave was surprised by her reaction...and we were just as surprised when we saw it.

"You're back," Via said. "They finally brought you back..."

Octave slowly smiled then hugged her back.

"Glad to be back," he said happily.

"Don't _ever_ scare me like that again! Or I'll hit you even harder next time."

"Uh...noted."

"Wow..." Finley whispered to us. "I've never seen this side of her..."

"Yeah..." we said still in surprise.

"It's better than what we were used to."

"Definitely."

"I heard that!" Via shouted.

"Heh, couldn't resist," he said.

"Okay, so we got Octave back," I said. "We got the mini-zapfish. So all that we have to do now is keep looking for Callie and the Great Zapfish."

"And we might have some more help. Octave, can you tell where Callie is?"

"Hmm..." he said. "I...actually, I wish I knew..."

"WHAT?!" we all shouted.

"You've been under Octavio's command for so long!" Fin exclaimed. "How could you not know?!"

"Let me rephrase that," Octave said. "I know she's here in the canyon. Most likely, she's down in Cephalon HQ."

"Where's that?"

"Down at the bottom of the canyon. That's the central base of operations for him. If you're looking for Callie, Octavio, or the Great Zapfish, head down there."

"Well, it's better to know that she's here, anyway," Amy said. "But what do you mean you wish you knew? You just told us."

"Yeah..." Octave said. "I know where she may be physically. But mentally? I'm not so sure..."

"What are you saying?" Finley said.

"Something's not right about her, guys. She might need your help more than ever."

"Then we have no time to waste," Marie said. She seemed to materialize near us somehow with the zapfish tank. (I'll never understand how she does that...)

"Hi, Marie," Octave said. "I know you probably _didn't_ miss me."

"Actually, you'd be surprised," Fin said as he put the last mini-zapfish in the tank.

"Shh! He doesn't need to know that!" she said quickly earning a chuckle from all of us except Via. She seemed kinda anxious now.

"Alright," she said. "Now that I got Octave back, I think it's time we go."

"Hold on," Octave protested. "We're leaving? We can't stay and help them?"

"I'm not really welcomed here anymore, you know..."

"Right, that newer soldier spotted you..."

"Newer soldier?" Finley asked. "Oh, you mean that girl that took the last zapfish that I had to chase down?"

"Yeah, that's her. She's new to the forces, but she seemed...different from the others."

"I can tell. We had a strange moment when I caught up to her. But let's not focus on her at the moment. For once, I might need to agree with Via. You two should go."

"But...I thought you would want our help..."

"Of course, we would. But you guys are kinda sunk at the moment, and I really doubt that Octavio's gonna give either of you another chance. Who knows what else he might try to do to you if you stay?"

"I know, but I'm still willing to face him with you guys. I want to help."

"Octave-" Via started.

"I won't take 'no' for an answer! He's gonna regret what he did to all of us!"

He looked really determined to stay no matter what. Even Via looked surprised.

"Well, you do realize how serious this might be for both of you, right?" Fin said. "I mean, he's...you know..."

I suddenly remembered what Octave said back at the track.

"Your grandfather," I said. Everyone else looked at me in surprise. "Did I say something wrong again?"

"How did you...?" Octave began to say.

"You did kinda mention it back there. Is that true? Is he really your grandfather? Both of yours?"

"Yeah..." Via said while lowering her head.

"And...And you never bothered to tell _us_?!" Marie shouted somewhat angrily. "At all?!"

"I thought you guys knew. Agent 3 did already."

Everyone fell silent. Amy, Marie and I stared at Finley in shock. He tried to avoid seeing us by looking at the ground.

"Fin..." Marie said quietly as she got closer to him. "You...knew the whole time?"

"I..." he said softly. "I...yes...I did...ever since we first met Octave..."

"But why didn't you tell me or Callie? Or the other agents? Or even the cap'n for that matter?"

"It wasn't my secret to tell. Octave and I wanted to keep that a secret so that he'd be off-radar for any suspicion. I made a promise to him to not tell anyone. And also, Cap'n Cuttlefish knows about it already. He looks just like Octavio when he was younger apparently."

"Then how are you so sure you can trust either of them?" Amy asked.

"Because they had multiple chances to attack us. But they never did, did they?"

"Well, she did..." I said while pointing to Via.

"You would attack him too if you were in my position!" she protested. She blushed a bit.

"Uh...what hap-?" Octave started to say.

" _Don't_ ask!" she said through her teeth.

"Just a dumb accident," Fin continued. "The point is, for as long as I've known Octave, he's never tried to attack me on his own free will. Via has done it in the past, but I've learned to overlook it for the sake of making progress."

"You have the worst logic ever, you know that?" Marie said.

"Alright...I'll put it in a way that you'll understand. Do you really think that anyone, Inkling or Octarian, wants to have this conflict? We know we don't. And if Octarians are being hypnotized in order to battle, that most likely means that they don't want to fight either. So it's clear that they don't want to take part in this any more than we do."

"Okay...now I think you have a point..."

"The bottom line is that it's their choice if they want to stay and help. It's clear that not all Octolings are bad."

We all looked amongst ourselves and back at the siblings. Finley did make a good point. If he met Octave some time ago and he's never attacked him, he might be trustworthy. Via seemed okay...a bit temperamental...but she seemed good enough overall. And considering that hypnotism was a factor in any hostility that either of them showed, they might actually be safe to have around us.

"Well, if you trust them," I said, "I will, too, regardless of their decision."

Amy and Marie looked at me in surprise.

"Arthur, are you sure?" Amy asked. "Remember this?" She pointed to her hair tentacles.

"I know, but it's obvious that Finley knows more about these two than any of us. And we trust him, right?"

"Right..." they both said.

"So, if he thinks that they're trustworthy...then I trust them, too."

They looked at each other then back at us.

"Okay..." Marie said with a sigh. "Whatever you guys choose, we're cool with it."

"But this doesn't mean that we won't keep an eye on you two," Amy added.

"I won't let you guys down," Octave said.

"I won't either," Via said. "We'll do anything we can."

"Huh, that's weird," I said. "You were just trying to leave not too long ago. What happened?"

"I got Octave back, and I think he's right. Grandpa or not, he's not gonna get away with all that he's done."

"Alright, then," Finley said contentedly. "For now, to keep you guys from getting captured or something, you guys can help us more out of the kettles. Agents 4, 5, and I will handle the actual missions."

"Alright, we can help with any mechanical work if needed," Octave said. "Or with navigation."

"Sweet. Appreciate it, Agent O."

"You know, I never got used to that title..."

"Alright, 'Agent 7' it is. And I guess that'll make Via 'Agent 6'."

"Yeah...I guess so..." she said in confusion.

"Well, anyway," Marie said. "We should probably take care of that boss so we can move on to the next area."

"Right," we all agreed.

"Octave, do you know what we might be in for?" I asked.

"I think so," he said. "It should be easy, but I'd recommend keeping those dual shooters."

"But to be on the safe side, I'll go with you this time," Amy said.

"I don't think so," I said. "You ought to let yourself heal."

"I can handle it. I'm fine. They barely hurt anymore."

She tugged on one of her tentacles and uttered "Ow".

"See? You should get that treated," I said.

"But-"

"I don't want to see you get hurt anymore, okay?"

Amy stared at me. She seemed caught off-guard by that which meant that I won the argument.

"Alright..." she said with a smile. "I'll stay."

"I'll treat her, Agent 4," Marie said. "I got a medical kit back at the cabin."

"Alright," Octave said. "Then, I'll go instead."

"Wait...what?" Via said.

"I know what boss this is. I can help him."

"Okay," Finley said as he tossed him his dualies. "If you're up for it, then go ahead."

"Thanks."

"Fin," I whispered to him. "Are you sure about this?"

"Someone's gotta keep the peace here," he said. Upon imagining what would happen if the rest of them were by themselves, I figured he was right. Things wouldn't be pretty.

We got ourselves ready to face the boss, turned into our squid and octopus forms, and dove into the big kettle. Hopefully, this boss would be easier than the samurai...

* * *

 ** _AN_ : And we'll see how that boss goes later. But for now, we'll see what's running through Finley's mind in the next few chapters. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this one, and I'll see you all in the next one.**


	16. A Push in the Right Direction

_**AN**_ **: And here's the next chapter. Hope you all enjoy it.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 16: A Push in the Right Direction

Fin here again.

After Arthur and Octave left, the rest of us went back to the cabin with the tank of zapfish. As Marie tended to Amy's hair tentacles, Via went to a ledge that gave a clear view of Inkopolis in the distance and sat down. I took this opportunity to talk to her.

"Hey," I said to her.

"Hey," she said with a sigh.

"So...you're over...whatever happened earlier...right?"

"I will be once you stop bringing it up."

"Right. Sorry. But what was that all about?"

"I don't know...maybe I just cuddle stuff in my sleep?"

"So when you're awake, you act tough and everything. But when you're asleep, you show your soft side. Interesting."

Via looked at me in annoyance.

"Okay, I give up," she said. "What're you getting at?"

"Just trying to figure you out. But can you really blame me for doing that? One day, you're out to basically kill me. The next, you're helping me battle your own grandfather. I just wanna know why the sudden change of hearts."

"I told you already. I just wanted to save Octave and get back at grandpa for the hypnotizing."

"I meant back when I first fought him."

"Oh...well...something didn't sit right with me. I didn't think that he would go so far as to force hypnosis on people to get what he wants."

"Is that all? Or is there more?"

"Why does it matter to you? Once this whole thing is over, we'll be out of your hair and find a new place to live. But why should you care? Your kind hasn't done anything nice for us before..."

"There you go again..."

"What do you mean?"

"The supposed 'dislike' you have for Inklings. Honestly, I'd like to know what you have against us."

"Hmm...I don't know," she said sarcastically. "How about for basically forcing us to live in these bad conditions? Having little power, resources, and everything? While you guys enjoy the easy life in your cozy homes in Inkopolis, we're stuck here under that idiot's oppression. And who's to blame? Oh, yeah! Inklings!"

"While that may be sorta true, Via, I think you missed some important things."

"Oh, really?! What's that?"

"The fact that you had the idea that Inklings are to blame for all your problems drilled into your head by the guy who was a part of the long forgotten war between our species. And from what I can tell, that same octopus has enough technology to probably make Octarians' lives better, but he's only using them for war."

"I...uh...well..."

"And the fact that Inklings and Octarians actually got along well before the first war even started."

"I don't-hold on...'long-forgotten war'? Are you joking? EVERYONE remembers that war!"

"Most Inklings don't. It's taught in schools, but not many people view it as significant. The only reason the Squidbeak Splatoon knows about it is because our leader fought in it himself."

"He's that Cuttlefish guy, right? Grandpa always talked about him..."

"If you can't tell, they have a long history..."

"Yeah...I could tell..."

"Anyway, I really doubt any Inkling would even care if an Octoling was in the city. I should know. I've seen two, and they were treated no differently."

"Well, maybe they just got lucky..."

"Octave was one of them if you didn't know."

Her ears perked up when I said that. She looked down.

"He actually went...?" she said in disbelief. "I thought he wouldn't do it...but...wow..."

I then decided to delve deeper and try to get an actual answer from her about her real view of Inklings.

"You know," I said. "You could go live somewhere in Inkopolis. You and Octave might be safer there. And probably a lot happier."

Via shuffled uncomfortably.

"I-I don't know..." she said uneasily.

"There's nothing to be afraid of. You're probably gonna blend in...if you change into more casual clothes. But nobody's gonna hurt you."

She looked at her armor.

"I might need to do some clothes shopping..." she admitted. "But I'm not scared about going there myself."

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

"Then, you'll go?"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, then, you're scared."

"I am not!"

"Then, what's the problem? No one's gonna be crazy enough to attack you for being an Octoling. They probably won't even notice that you are one. They might just think you're from some distant lands. Which you kinda are anyway."

"I told you I'm NOT scared!" she said with her voice getting louder.

"Well, clearly, _something's_ keeping you from going!" I said impatiently. "So, spill it!"

"I don't want to be rejected, okay?!" she snapped. "I don't want to be the one to stick out in a crowd for being different! Both visually and how I might act..."

I stared at her in silence. I sat next to her, and she was caught off-guard by this.

"Is that all?" I said. "If so, I know how you feel."

"How...?"

I took off my glasses so she could see my eyes clearly. I pointed to them.

"What?" she asked confusedly.

"They're red, Via," I said. "Naturally red."

"So?"

"That's not normal for Inklings. Do you know how much attention I get because of these?"

"It's not normal for inklings?"

"Nope, it's rare to be born with them."

"Weird...we sorta have something like that. For Octolings, it's rare to have white hair, yet I know that there's at least one."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and she's the reason I was found out..."

"So...you mean that new soldier...?"

She nodded. "She was sorta new to Octavio's army, apparently. Fresh out of the training school. I was doing some sneaking around when she saw me. She hurried and called for backup to come capture me. I rushed out to get away and to find you again, but I ended up running into Agent 4 instead."

"Hmm...is she really anxious about being a part of it or something? She didn't seem too...menacing..."

"I'm not sure. Wait, why do you ask?"

"I think I may have met her when we rescued Octave. She seemed more scared than anything, and she even said she didn't want to be here. After I got the zapfish back from her, she disappeared."

"She'd better hope she doesn't run into me. Then, she'll have something to really be scared of."

"Okay, simmer down. I doubt we'll see her again."

"What makes you so sure?"

"I just have a gut feeling that she won't be staying here for long."

I felt my face warm up when I thought about her.

Actually, speaking of which, I feel like I should probably tell what happened back when I chased that girl when she took the mini-zapfish.

(Cue flashback again. Don't worry, it'll be a lot shorter this time.)

* * *

Once I started chasing that Octoling, she was trying to shoot back at me. I dodged most of her shots and threw a bomb ahead of her to cut off her path.

She got stuck in the ink left over from the bomb. Unfortunately, she stopped so abruptly that I couldn't stop fast enough and ran into her. We both tumbled onto the ground and lost our weapons.

"Ow..." we groaned.

She made a high-pitched "eek" sound when I tried to push myself up.

"U-Um..." she said nervously. "Y-You could've, um, asked...before t-touching that... "

I realized why I felt something soft when I tried to get up. I quickly removed my hand, got up, and distanced myself from her.

"Why does this kind of thing keep happening to me?!" I yelled internally as my face started burning. "I don't get it! Am I really lucky or just really unfortunate?!"

Upon looking at her more closely, I only then noticed how...blessed she was. She also seemed to be about my age and had the same skin color as me. Her hair was also purple colored, but it didn't look as big or puffy as Via's or any other Octoling girls. But the strange thing about it was that it also wasn't entirely purple. Near the tips of them, they were fading into a pure white kinda like highlights. (And between you and me, she looked kinda attractive. Tell _no one_ I said that though.)

"O-Oh, uh, sorry about that," I said hurriedly. "Now, hand over that zapfish!"

"Wait! Don't hurt me!" she shouted fearfully. "Take it!"

The poor girl's arm shook as she handed the zapfish to me. I was a bit surprised to see that she was so scared. I took the zapfish.

"Er, thank you?" I said. I felt like I had to reassure her. "And I wasn't gonna hurt you. Calm down."

She whimpered in fear as she began to slide away from me further.

"It's okay," I said trying to sound reassuring. "You don't need to be afraid. I wasn't planning to hurt you."

"You...y-you weren't?" she said carefully.

"No. I fight only when it's necessary. You try to attack me, then I'll attack you. That's how it works."

She looked at me fearfully.

"But...I-I did shoot at you..." she said quietly.

"You're hearts weren't in it," I said. "I could tell. You just pointed your shooter at me, fired, and hoped for the best."

She looked down. I could hear her start sniffling.

"W-What's the matter...?"

"I...I want to leave..." she sobbed quietly.

"Leave? As in, leave here?"

"I don't want to do this anymore...I-I _can't_ do it..."

"What're you talking about?"

"I don't want to fight anymore..."

"I kinda thought that something was different about you..."

"I want to leave, but I have nowhere else to go..."

She pulled her knees close and sobbed more. I started feeling sorry for her. I know no one wanted this war, and as far as I know, she didn't either. I decided to at least offer some help. I stayed on my guard just in case I was wrong.

"Hey, don't cry," I said. "I could help you out a bit."

She became silent.

"You...can?" she asked. "But...why help me...?"

"I don't want to fight anymore either. And you seem like a nicer Octoling. Besides, someone told me that there's not much honor in beating an unarmed opponent. And he might have been onto something there."

"R-Really...?" she said as she looked up at me.

I smiled and nodded assuredly.

"Come on," I said. "I'll help you up."

I offered a hand. She looked at it, then back at me. She carefully grasped it, and I pulled her up. She took off her shades and wiped her tears away, and when she lowered her arm, she revealed that she had bright purple eyes and black markings around them. That was surprising to see. If Octave and Via were anything to go by, normally, most Octarian eye markings were purple. I guess it didn't apply to all of them. At the very least, it was reassuring to know that the girl definitely wasn't hypnotized when she threw the glasses away. But it made me wonder how that was possible.

"D-Do you think that there could be a safe place...for me...?" she said softly.

"Trust me," I said. "You'll be safe anywhere but here under Octavio's rule. You should escape. Find yourself a better life away from all of this."

She stared at me silently. I found myself staring back. Then, I realized that we were still holding hands. I felt myself blush again.

She must've realized it, too. Once she looked at our hands, her tentacles turned a deep red and started curling up even more than normal. She quickly let go and ran to get her shooter, changed into her octopus form, and launched away out of my sight.

"Um...you're welcome?" I called out in confusion. "That was weird. Oh, well. I should probably head back to help Arthur...if Octave didn't already splat him, that is..."

I hurriedly grabbed my dualies and ran back to them.

I think you know what happened once I got there, but that's basically what happened once I left Arthur.

(End flashback. See? It wasn't that long.)

* * *

Marie called Via and me back to the cabin for us to look at something. Once we arrived, we were a bit shocked to see what she had done to Amy.

"Well?" Amy asked as she spun around. "What do you think?"

Her hair tentacles were now styled in a short bob cut.

"Um..." I said trying to find my words. "Wow...it looks...great!"

"Yeah..." Via said. "Even I have to agree..."

"Thanks, guys!" she said cheerily. "I feel a lot better. Just a little trim is all I needed."

"A trim? You mean you cut them off?!" I said to Marie.

"I do it with Callie whenever her hair tentacles get injured," she said. "You've seen how long they are. Besides, they grow back pretty quickly if you sink down in your ink."

"Good point...but...what's Arthur gonna say when he sees that...?"

"Well, he won't mind," Amy said.

"Why do I doubt that?"

"Wow...no wonder you two are friends. You sound just alike."

"I can tell that he's just protective of you. That's all. He'd hate to see you get hurt."

"I know. He's always been like that, but it's not without it's perks. He and I always have each other's backs even if we have our disagreements. He'd do anything to keep me safe. And I'd do the same for him."

"Huh..." Via said. "Sounds sorta familiar..."

"I bet it does," I said with a smirk.

Soon after that, Octave and Arthur returned to the cabin. Octave held the zapfish.

"Welcome back, guys," Marie said. "Mission was a success?"

"Yeah," Arthur said. "We fought a-...What the halibut?!"

He stared at Amy.

"What happened to your hair?!" he asked.

"Marie cut it lower so nothing like that happens again," she explained. "What do you think?"

"It's not bad...but couldn't either of you have let me know about this first?"

"I suppose. But it's no big deal. It didn't hurt. I actually feel a lot better."

"You sure?"

"Definitely."

"Callie has hair tentacles that are a lot longer than hers," Marie explained. "And stuff like this has happened before to her. Just a quick cut, have her submerge in her ink, and she's good as new."

"So you've done this before. Whew...good."

"So what happened with you guys anyway?" I asked them. "Did the boss give you trouble?"

"Octostomp was super easy," Octave said. "He had a few tricks up his...non-existent sleeve...but he's still as easy as ever."

"Octostomp? You mean, he was rebuilt and used again? Wow...I expected something different..."

"What do you mean he was 'rebuilt'?" Amy asked.

"I beat him before, but I guess they brought him back for an encore," I explained.

"Well, at least you guys got the zapfish."

"Yeah, good job."

"Thanks!" Octave said. "But...I did most of the work."

Arthur froze and turned to him.

"Wait, hold on," he said. "Not true. I did most of the work. You were the support."

"Lies! Remember when he splatted you?"

"Then immediately after he got you with the same move because you were busy laughing at me?"

"You weren't supposed to mention that."

"You forced my hand."

The guys glared at each other. They then started to crack up. The rest of us couldn't help but join in.

"You're not so bad, Octave," Arthur said.

"Neither are you, Arthur," Octave said.

"So...'Arthur' is your real name?" Via said. "Never knew that..."

"Oh, right," he said. "Well, it is. And you may have sorta gotten to know my little sister, Amelia."

"You can call me Amy," Amy said.

"Never knew that either..." Via said.

"Now that we have delayed official introductions out of the way," Arthur said, "there's something I need to see..."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Marie, is there something you can use to communicate with the agents? Or anywhere else in the canyon?"

"Yeah, I have a radio communicator in the shed," she said. "Why do you ask?"

"I think someone might be trying to keep us out of here. Go check it to see if anyone else comes through."

"Okay."

We all went to the radio. It did nothing but make static noises.

"Nothing's coming through," Marie said.

"Lea...no..." a faint voice said through the static. "LEAVE NOW!"

"Okay...that doesn't sound good..."

"It sounds familiar..." I said. I picked up the mic to talk through it. "Who is this?"

"Ne...to..." the voice said through the static. It completely went out after that.

"Alright...something tells me that we'll need to do the opposite of whatever we heard."

"Well, the next area should be open up so we should go now," Via said.

"She's right," Octave said. "Next up is Slimeskin Garrison."

"Hmm...then that's where we're gonna be heading," I declared as we left the cabin.

We then heard a jingle on someone's phone. Turns out it was Marie's. She took it out and gasped at what she saw.

"We got a new problem," she said worriedly. "There's some Octoling trouble happening at Moray Towers."

"Oh, perfect..." I groaned. "Who's gonna deal with that...?"

All eyes turned to me.

"Of course...why not...? Anyone coming with me though?"

"I suppose I could..." Marie said. "That place is a sniper's paradise. I could help out a lot if things get crazy."

"I can go, too," Via said. "Just for extra help."

"You actually want to go into the city?" I asked.

"I'm gonna at least see what's going on. Besides, it can't be for that long, right?"

"Maybe...but if you insist, I appreciate the help. Both of you."

"But what about us?" Arthur asked.

"Octave, you lead them to Slimeskin Garrison," Via said. "You know how to open up the boss kettles?"

"Of course," he said. "I'll take these two to it and open it up. The faster we defeat that boss, the faster we can get to Cephalon HQ."

"Alright," I said. "Sounds like a plan. We'll catch up once we're done."

"I don't know about this..." Arthur said. "You sure we can handle it by ourselves?"

"You'll be fine. Just look out for each other," Marie said.

I pulled him over to whisper to him.

"And try to keep Octave from making 'joking' comments that might make Amy try to hurt him," I said. "He does that to Marie a lot. Just try to keep the peace between them."

"Noted..." he groaned.

"Alright. Now that that's settle, let's get moving."

"Wait," Marie said. "I forgot one last thing."

"What is it?"

She rushed back into the cabin and after some time, she came back in her Agent 2 gear. She was also holding her Hero Charger.

"Now, I'm ready," she said while pulling up her mask over her mouth. "Let's get going."

"And Agent 2 makes her official comeback," I said with a grin.

With this plan in action, we wished each other good luck and split up into our respective groups.

Marie, Via, and I dove into the grate that led to Inkopolis Square.

* * *

 _ **AN**_ **: Well, this was an uneventful chapter...unless you didn't get the little something I was hinting at in the small flashback.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you all liked this chapter (reviews and such are always welcome), and I'll see you all in the next one.**


	17. New Perspective

_**AN**_ **: Now, here's where I deviate a bit more from the actual story in the game. Hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 17: New Perspective

When we reached Inkopolis, Marie and I came out of the grate first. We had appeared in the square, and the place had fewer people around. The sun was also close to setting.

"Okay, so how do we get to Moray Towers without bring attention to Via?" I asked.

"Who's gonna notice her?" Marie asked.

"You're right. Who's gonna notice an octopus girl with black hair and battle armor?"

"Okay, good point. Well, it's not scheduled to be used for battles today. We could sneak her there without problems. Probably..."

"What do you think, Via?" I asked.

She poked her head from the grate and viewed her surroundings.

"Is there any way we could get there through these pipes or something?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, no."

"Wait, I know!" Marie said. She pulled out a hair band and handed it to Via. "Put your hair up in a pony tail. Some Inkling girls have there's up in a bun anyway. No one will notice."

She sighed before climbing out of the grate completely and putting her hair tentacles up into a pony tail. She still looked anxious.

"Huh, not bad, Via," I said. She rolled her eyes.

"Just stay calm," Marie said. "It's not too far. We have a little bit of a ways to go, though..."

We began our run to the towers.

"I'm still not sure about this," Via said. "I feel like people are staring..."

"They're not," I said. "It's your imagination working against you." (Ironically, I said that as we passed a couple of guys who I could've sworn looked at her in a lovestruck way.)

"I hate to say it," Marie said, "but a lot of people here tend to be a bit...oblivious."

"I also hate to say this, but she's right. I think most of the people that we've passed just think you're an Inkling with a different hairstyle."

"If you say so..." Via mumbled. She slightly relaxed after hearing that.

Eventually, we made it to Moray Towers where we saw a couple of Octosnipers on some of the ramps.

"Okay, so it's clear that Octarians have invaded," Marie said. "But why here of all places?"

"No clue," I said.

"It's not like we have a real 'plan' of where to invade first..." Via said.

"Well, whatever. We're here, and we need to take them down."

"Right," Via said.

"Just one little problem, though..."

"What?" they asked.

"How do we get up there?"

They looked at each other then up at the towers.

"Didn't think of that one..." Marie said. "They're probably closed on the inside, too."

"And I thought you were the planner..." Via said.

"I don't see you coming up with any ideas."

"For the most part, that's my job," I said as I turned into my squid form. I launched myself up as far as I could to see the respawn bases that were used for regular battles. Luckily, they were activated. One was set to the Octarian ink color and the other to teal blue. However, I caught a small glimpse of a figure with a distinct black bow standing by the fuchsia respawn point while several Octolings holding various weapon were descending the ramps.

"Wait a minute," I thought. "Is that...? No, it can't be her, can it?"

I landed back by Marie and Via.

"Well?" Marie said. "How bad is it?"

I wanted to tell that that I may have seen Callie up there, but I decided to not get either of our hopes up in case it wasn't her.

"Not too bad..." I said. "There's a respawn point still active on one side. We can use that to get up there and get a better view of what we're up against."

"Wow, he _is_ the idea guy..." Via said.

"Change to teal blue and launch up to the base on the right."

We all changed to the matching color and launched up to the base. From there, we could see the snipers and numerous Octolings patrolling the ramps.

"Okay...this doesn't seem too bad..." Marie said.

"I think it's just a small group scoping out some places in the city to turn into bases," Via explained. "They're usually pretty small."

"Since you're sorta the expert, is there any way we could just take them all out at once?"

"Typically, there's some kind of commander or two. Take them out, and the whole group might fall apart."

"You sure?"

"If the bosses are anything to go by," I said, "it might work."

"But who's the commander?"

"Not sure," Via said.

"Okay, this might be a bit harder..." I groaned. "There's a lot to choose from..."

"But don't let that stop you from just splatting all of them."

"Huh," Marie said. "This might be kinda fun in a way. Like a shooting gallery."

"Is this all that this is to you Inklings? A game?" Via said annoyed.

"No. But we might get a kick out of splatting these guys over and over," I said. "Agent 2, you stay up at higher ground and cover us. Agent 6, you come with me, and we'll push forward. Watch the front, and I'll watch your back. You both ready?"

"Ready," they said with a determined nod.

"Alright, let's do this."

We moved forward to execute the plan. While we did, I made it a personal plan to try to get to that other respawn point. If who I saw up there was Callie, this could be our chance to get her back. To at least have somewhere to retreat to, we inked down the ramps until we were met with a few Octolings. Once we took them out, we kept moving. Eventually, Marie stopped following and set herself up as our sniper. Via and I continued forward.

"So far, so good," I said.

"Whoa!" Via shouted as she dodged a shot from an Octosniper. Those guys have a surprisingly good range. I started dodging their fire as well. Eventually, we were pinned down behind a wall.

"Looks like _someone_ spoke too soon," she said while glaring at me. "What now?"

"I got this," Marie said over my headset. "Eat ink, Octo-jerks!"

I poked my head up to see Marie take out the Octosniper duo.

"Nice shooting, Agent 2!" I said. "You've still got it."

"Who says I lost it to begin with?"

"Meh, her aim was still sloppy..." Via muttered.

"Three, can you kindly tell her to-"

"If it's offensive, no," I said quickly. I heard her huff in annoyance which told me that it _was_ offensive.

"Tell her...that we should give her a headset so we can talk to her from long distances, too..."

"Better...and I will."

After I did, she and I went forward. With the Octosnipers out of the picture, we ended up being confronted by (and quickly splatted) two more Octolings. Via ran with her brush up the ramps with me following her and ambushing more Octolings as we came across them. Some time later, as we were halfway up the second tower, Via stopped and sighed after we splatted another one.

"Okay," she said. "I think that's the last one."

"How are you so sure?" I asked.

"I was counting the number of soldiers in my head the whole time. It was the exact number that each group normally has."

I looked up at the tower.

"Hmm...can we just go up to make sure anyway?" I asked.

She raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why?" she asked.

"Just for a double check to make sure that they won't pull an ambush or something."

"I guess..."

She and I continued up the path until we reached the top. Nothing was there except more Octarian ink.

"I don't see anything," Via said.

"I guess I was wrong..." I said.

Suddenly, as we were getting ready to super jump back to Marie, a barrage of Splat Bombs came from above and detonated all around us. The explosions seemed stronger than normal, and we ended up getting splatted.

As I got out of the respawn point, I could faintly see something launch away.

"Ugh..." Via groaned as she got up. "What were you saying about an ambush?"

"You guys okay?" Marie said through my headset.

"Yeah," I said as I got up. "We're coming to you now."

We launched back to her.

"What happened up there? I saw the explosion and something fly away. What was that?"

"I...think it was Callie..." I said.

"WHAT?!"

"I'm not sure, but I thought I saw her up there. That's why I wanted to check out the top of that tower."

"That couldn't have been her. Octave said that she's in the canyon."

"That's why I'm confused."

"Well, we did our job here, anyway," Via said. "Let's get back to the canyon. If the others finished beating the boss of Slimeskin Garrison, the next place we should be heading to is Cephalon HQ."

"I suppose you're right...but frankly, I'm ready for this whole thing to be over..."

"I know how you feel..." Marie sighed.

We made our way off the towers and back to the square. It was really starting to get dark which meant that the square wasn't full anymore. Via seemed a bit more calm about being there, and she seemed to like all the neon lights that were starting to come on.

"Wow..." she said. "This place is pretty at night..."

"Yeah..." I said. "It really is nice. You should see it from a far away distance. It's breathtaking."

"I know...I've seen it..."

"When?"

"You ever notice how I'm always looking at the city at that ledge? I've done that sometimes at nights and see the city lights. It's really a sight to see. And it's kinda calming..."

"It is," Marie agreed.

"You know, there are some places in the canyon that are kinda nice," I said. "One of the domes in the kettles I went into had a space theme to it. Octavio may be bad, but he's got an interesting sense of interior design..."

"He really is something else..." Via said.

"You don't mean that as a compliment, do you?"

"Not in the slightest."

We finally made it to the grate and dove into it.

* * *

When we came out in Octo Canyon, we met up with the other agents resting by the cabin.

"Welcome back," Octave said. "How'd it go?"

"Good enough. Just a few Octolings and Octosnipers," I said. "How'd things go for you?"

"Well, we got the zapfish, and I think Agent 4 discovered his own hidden talent for sniping."

"Really?" Marie said. "So you can use a charger?"

"Um..." Arthur said uneasily. "A-Apparently? I didn't know I could use it so well..."

"Huh...interesting. I'm a charger girl myself. Maybe you could demonstrate for me? Or vice versa?"

"S-Sure..." He started blushing a bit. (It didn't take me long to figure out that he might've had a thing for her. It was way too obvious.) This was a sign that told me that Arthur might be winning her over. She does kinda like guys who can use a charger well.

"He's new to this stuff, isn't he?" Via asked.

"Yeah, I kinda am..."

"I got splatted by a rookie agent before, and I eventually rescued another one. Where has my life gone...?"

"Anyway," I said. "Cephalon HQ is next up, right?"

"Yeah," Octave said. "Let's not waste any more time."

Suddenly, the radio communicator started up again in the cabin. A familiar garbled voice came through.

"Okay," Marie said in frustration as she picked up the mic. "Who is this?"

The voice was still garbled. I then remembered why it sounded so familiar.

"Marie," I said while motioning for her to give me the mic. I spoke into it. "Are...Uh...Are you holding your phone upside...?"

The voice went silent for a second then came in clearly.

"Ugh...I totally was," she said. Instantly, Marie and I knew who it was.

"CALLIE?!" we shouted in surprise.

"Um...Nope, this is definitely _not_ Callie!" she said quickly while trying (and failing) to disguise her voice.

"We know it's you!" Marie said. "You _always_ forget that it's upside down."

"DO NOT! Now, just leave, would you?! It's dangerous here! It's not safe at all!"

"We're not leaving!" I said. "And those mean the same thing!"

"WHATEVER! JUST GET OUT OF HERE! This is your last warning!"

"Callie, this is ridiculous! We're not just gonna turn around a go home," Marie said.

"FINE! I gave you guys multiple chances. And you _still_ can't take a hint! Well, guess what! NOW, YOU'RE IN FOR IT!"

"Callie, what are you talking about?!" I asked.

"JUST GET OUT!" she shrieked. "I'm not calling again! You guys asked for it!"

She hung up.

"Wait! Callie?!" Marie called. "She...hung up..."

Everyone looked at each other in shock.

"What just happened?!" Amy asked.

"I have no idea," I said slowly. "But Octave, you were right...there's something up with her..."

"This may sound kinda hasty, guys..." Arthur said. "But...you don't think that Callie's working for the Octarians like Octave was before...do you...?"

"No, that can't be it..." Marie said. "It just can't be. Right, Fin?"

I started remembering what happened at the towers. It wasn't just a bunch of different bombs being thrown at us.

"Fin...?" Marie asked again.

"Marie..." I said. "Remember the explosions on the tower that Via and I were in?"

"Yeah..."

"Call me crazy, but I think that might've been a...Bomb Rush special..."

"No..."

"We know one person that uses a bomb throwing special a lot...she even had a song with them..."

"No! I can't believe it!" I could see a couple of tears on her face.

"Marie, listen to me!"

"I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" she yelled. Arthur then came up to her and grabbed her shoulders.

"Marie, calm down!" he said. She stared at him in shock. The rest of us did as well. "Whatever happens you can count on us to save her. You have my word."

Marie sniffled a little then calmed down. She quickly hugged Arthur tightly. He seemed surprised when she did, but he hugged her back and comforted her. Seeing that brought back memories...

"You got this?" I asked him. He nodded.

I walked out of the cabin and started trying to think of why would Callie would even think to join the Octarians. The other three agents soon followed.

"I've never seen Marie like this..." Octave said.

"She's really taking this hard..." Via added.

"Wouldn't you if someone you care about is working for someone you consider an enemy?" Amy asked.

The Octoling siblings looked at each other.

"You got us there..." Via admitted.

"One thing I don't get is how is Fin holding up so well?" Octave asked.

"What do you mean?" Amy asked.

"You don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Callie's actually my girlfriend," I said.

"Hah! You're kidding, right?"

I looked at her with a straight face. She got the message.

"Oh...no, you're not...wait, for how long?"

"...Almost...two years..."

"WHAT?!"

"Hard to believe, I know."

"So, this must be hard for you to take in, too, huh?" Via said.

"It's hard to take in, but I've learned not to give up so easily. I just know that she doesn't really want to work for them."

"You think it's still a good idea to go after her? She did warn us about trying to find her..."

"I don't care about what danger lies ahead...I'm still gonna do whatever I can to bring her back."

"And I thought it was just a crush..." Amy muttered.

"It was a...mutual attraction..." I felt my face warm up.

"Well, if Callie's working with the Octarians now," Octave said. "I think that attraction would now be considered one-sided..."

"Octave, don't say that," Amy said. "We don't know if she's even working with them or not. She could be under Octavio's control like you were."

"It's possible," I said. I suddenly remembered the shades that Callie wore before she went missing. "Wait...it's not a possibility. It's definite!"

"What do you mean?"

"Via, you mentioned that the shades were what Octavio was using to control Octave and the other Octolings, right?"

"Right," she said.

"Callie had a pair on after Octavio escaped. But they looked more decorated. That means..."

"She was under his control from the start..."

"How'd I miss that...? I'm such an idiot!"

"Don't blame yourself, Fin," Octave said. "Anyone probably could've overlooked that. No one would think that the glasses were the problem."

"I suppose...but still...I should've known something was off about them. She seemed to just get them out of nowhere. And she was acting a bit differently after she got them."

"Well, now we know that she's just being hypnotized like I was..."

Marie and Arthur came back out of the cabin.

"Felling better, Marie?" I asked.

"Yeah..." she said. "I just...needed some reassurance..."

Arthur smiled and nodded. His face actually looked a little more red than before.

"Well, he's right, you know? We aren't gonna give up," Amy said.

"Not a chance," Octave said.

"Cephalon HQ has got to be where Callie is," Via said.

"Then let's not waste any more time," I said.

"I do wonder something..."

"What is it now?"

"What the heck would a wasabi-wielding octopus dj want with a pop star under his control?"

"Good question..." Octave said. "Even when I was under his control, he distinctly never told me his plans. I have no idea."

"Hey, wait..." I said. "Via, what'd you call him?"

"A wasabi-wielding octopus dj?" she said.

I then had a thought.

"That's it...he's a dj..."

"Yeah..." Marie said. "So...?"

"So, what do they do for a living?"

"Remix songs into something different."

"Exactly."

Everyone looked at me in silence.

"I think you've lost us, dude..." Arthur said.

"Where are you going with this?" Via asked.

I ran back into the cabin and brought back the concert poster Marie and I found in Octo Valley.

"This!" I showed the poster. "A concert. If we know Octavio, he's not one for subtlety. Why else would he kidnap Callie?"

"He wanted a singer..." Arthur said. "But he probably had at least one Octoling be able to sing for him. So why pick Callie?"

"Finley..." Octave said. "Their song."

"What song?"

"Wow...you are clueless about us..." Marie said to him. "The last time we faced Octavio, Callie and I sang our song 'Calamari Inkantation' which apparently is a weakness of his. With some help from Octave, Agent 3 took him down. He probably took her to keep us from singing it again."

"Oh, that song. I at least know that one."

"Callie might've been an easier target to capture since she was still in Inkopolis," I said.

"Can't you sing it by yourself?" Via asked.

"No, it's a duet song," Amy said. "They have to sing it together."

"She's right," Marie said. "The song probably won't have it's full effect if it's just me."

"Oh..." Via said. "So now that we know the reason for him taking her, do you think now is the best time to go confront him?"

"Yeah," Octave said. "But wait...by now, he probably knows that we're coming to them...what do we do?"

"I think I have a plan..." Marie said with a smile forming. "And we're all gonna need to do our part in it. And if this goes off without any problems, we'll get Callie and the Great Zapfish back."

She explained the plan to us, and when she was done, we got ourselves ready for our (hopefully) last mission.

* * *

 _ **AN**_ **: And now, the final boss will be coming up shortly. But before that happens, let's see what happened with Arthur and the others earlier starting with their fight against the Octo Shower...which you'll see in the next chapter.**

 **Until then, hope you enjoyed this one (Reviews, favorites, and such are always welcome), and I'll see you all in the next one.**


	18. Showdown with a Shower

_**AN**_ **: And now, we have what went on with Arthur and the others during the split up. Hope you enjoy what happens.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 18: Showdown with a Shower

Going back to some time after we split up, Octave led me and Amy to the next boss kettle in Slimeskin Garrison. (Oh, it's Arthur, by the way.)

"Alright," Octave said when we got there. "This next Octoweapon has a harder way of exposing its weak spot."

"And that would be...?" I asked.

"Let's just say I'd recommend that at least one of you use a charger."

"Well, this looks like a job for you, bro," Amy said.

"Why me?!" I asked.

"I'm lousy with chargers. Plus, you still need the weapon practice."

"Oh, right...well, if I must..."

"Charger incoming!" Sheldon said over our headsets. One of his drones came down with a case holding a charger that looked kinda like the one Marie left with.

"Sheldon, how'd you know that we'd need one?"

"I had a gut feeling that you might need this."

"Interesting."

"I also need more data on this weapon."

"And there's the real reason..."

"Ahem, presenting the Hero Charger!"

(I'm gonna skip to after the lecture.)

"Good luck with your mission, agents!" he said as he tuned out.

"Okay..." I said. "Well, now that that's over, I should get going. Octave, can you open this thing?"

"Are Fin's eyes red?" Octave asked jokingly. "Someone time me."

"I got it," Amy said as she pulled out her phone timer. "And...go!"

Octave went to a panel, and suddenly, the boss kettle opened.

"Done!" he said. Amy stopped the timer.

" Just under eight seconds," she said. "That's amazing! Are all Octolings good with machines?"

"Actually, yes...sorta. It's something that we all get trained to do. Those who are better at it than others are on the tech development teams. Others become soldiers or some other branch. But enough about that. You ready?"

"As I'll ever be..." I said as I got up on the kettle. Amy came up as well with her roller. "What're you-"

"You don't think you're dealing with this thing without me, do you?" Amy said. She dove into the kettle before I could argue.

"Let me guess," Octave said. "Younger sister?"

"Yep..."

"She's prone to leap before looking?"

"Oh, yeah..."

"You'd better get down there then. This boss is nearly impossible with a roller."

I nodded. I followed her down the kettle.

* * *

I landed in a green respawn point. Amy was standing ahead of me, looking at the arena where the boss would be. The arena wasn't entirely flat this time. There were a few towers on it.

"What do you think those are for?" Amy said when I got up to her.

"No idea," I said. "But I have the strangest feeling that they might be useful."

We launched over to the arena where a large puddle of ink was in the middle. We saw a small yellow rubber duck with a pink bow floating on the surface of it.

The small zapfish was lowered into it like normal and activated the boss that was inevitably waiting for us. The boss appeared out of the ink being carried by three Octarians with propellers on their heads (I think they were called "Octocopters". How fitting...). The boss itself was robotic and kinda looked like a shower head with a big blue shower cap on top of it. It also had two big lights on it that looked like eyes. Once it rose up completely, it let out a loud sound that sounded like a strange train whistle. Steam came out of it, and it's eyes turned read.

"Looks like this thing is ready for a fight," Amy said as she raised her roller. "Um...Octave...what's this thing called again?"

"The Octo Shower," he said through our headsets. "If you can't tell, this thing has a theme..."

"Which is?" I asked.

"Cleaning."

The Octo Shower then sprouted two hands with blue rubber gloves and a giant spray bottle. A small red dot appeared on my chest. Amy and I ran for cover behind one of the towers. We heard the familiar sound of a charger firing as a long stream of Octarian ink missed us both.

"Never could've guessed..." I thought. Amy poked her head out for a second.

"Hey, that spray bottle charger thing reminds me of a Classic Squiffer…" she said. "Also, missiles incoming!"

She ducked back as we felt two things hit and slightly make the tower vibrate.

"How do we expose the weak tentacle?" I asked.

"Shoot down those Octocopters," Octave said. "It won't be able to move without those, and the tentacle will be exposed when it lands."

"How?!"

"You have a charger, dude! What do you think?!"

I looked at the charger in my hands.

"Oh..." I groaned. "Now, I get it..."

I looked up at the tower behind us.

"Agent 5, I'm gonna need your help," I said. "Can you ink this wall so I can get on top of it? I'll need a clear shot."

She nodded, took a couple of steps back, and splashed the wall with ink. I swam up it as she did. Once I got to the top, I had a clear shot to hit one of the Octocopters. Suddenly, the Octo Shower flew backwards, made its whistle sound, and started pouring out ink from its underside. It began flying towards us.

"So that's why it looks like a shower head!" I exclaimed. "Get out of the way!"

Amy ran off in another direction while I jumped off the tower to avoid it.

"I got an idea!" Amy said through my headset. "Get up on a tower, and I'll lure it to you. Then shoot it down. Ready?"

"Hang on, what?!" I said in confusion.

"Go!"

She took off running. I was still a little confused as to what just happened, but I got up to the tower as quickly as I could and got into firing position. Soon, Amy ran passed the tower with the Octo Shower following her. I took aim at the Octocopters and fired. I managed to get two in one shot leaving one left to struggle carrying it. Once I shot it, the Octo Shower fell down with a loud clang. A tentacle popped out from under a plug on top of the machine.

"I got it!" Amy said. She swung her roller at the tentacle until it burst. As ink gushed from the hole left on top of the machine, she and I launched away from it.

Another tentacle sprouted from it and sank back into it. It whistled again. Four more Octocopters carrying another plug came flying in and put it on top of it. I assumed that the Octo Shower called them or something. They carried the Octo Shower back into the air, and the machine let out more steam and another louder whistle.

"Okay, what else does this guy have?" I asked. Suddenly, its rubber glove hands came out again holding some sort of machine with a hand crank. "I just HAD to ask, didn't I...?"

"That kinda looks like a Sloshing Machine," Amy noted. "So if that last weapon was a charger, then this must be a kind of slosher."

The Octo Shower began cranking the weapon until a barrage of ink was fired at us.

"Okay, I was wrong!" she said as we both dodged the shots. "It's a hand-crank splatling!"

"Talk about low-tech..." Octave said. "And I'm sure Sheldon would agree..."

"Let's run the same plan," I said. "Distract it, and I'll shoot it down."

"Right," she agreed.

She went elsewhere to lure away its attention. I hated putting her in the position of being a target, but this might've been the best plan we had at the moment. The Octo Shower continued firing torpedoes (which I'm pretty sure had small faces on them) at both of us. As I dodged them, I climbed another tower. When I got to the top, I told Amy where I was so she could lead it to me. However, as she came toward me, the Octo Shower did its "ink shower" attack and charged at her. I knew she couldn't outrun it.

Thinking fast, I readied myself to shoot at the Octocopters again. Just a bit after Amy passed the tower I was on, the machine moved in my range. I quickly fired the shot, splatting two of the Octocopters again. The remaining two Octocopters were startled when the weight of the machine caused them to slightly jerk sideways almost running into another tower. They got themselves together to balance out carrying it again.

"Nice shot, Agent 4!" Octave said. "That's another two-in-one snipe!"

"And now, two more to go," I said. I was about to fire again when two more "Octorpedoes" were fired and homed in on me (I felt like the name seemed fitting). I hurriedly shot them down. "Okay, two down, but not the two I was talking about..."

After going through the same plan again with me on another tower, I shot down the last two in a single shot. The Octo Shower fell to the ground again and the tentacle popped out from the top.

"How...do you keep...hitting two...at once?" Amy asked between each swing of her roller at the exposed tentacle. Once it burst, she and I launched away from it.

"Wish I knew," I said as we landed.

The last tentacle sprouted out from the top as the machine whistled for more Octocopters. The next four Octocopters that flew in had thrusters on their little helicopter helmets. The thrusters pushed them a bit jaggedly towards the downed machine. They plugged up the tentacle again and lifted it. With another whistle, the battle resumed.

"Okay, this should be the last hit, right?" I asked.

"Right...apparently three is the magic number," Octave said. "I don't know if I should be grateful or kinda ashamed that these things go down after three hits, but regardless, keep your heads in the game."

"We got this! We know all its tricks," Amy said confidently.

To once again prove her wrong, the Octo Shower's hands came out holding a machine that looked like a pressure washer.

"Wait a second..." I said remembering my first battle. "That's a Sting Ray! Watch out!"

We both tried to take cover as it charged up and fired the weapon rather quickly. Unfortunately, I forgot that it also cuts through walls, and it just so happened that it decided to go after me this time. I ran for cover behind a tower and got hit multiple times by the blast. (It really lived up to its name...)

"Okay...that hurt..." I groaned. I tried to move out more, but I came face to metallic face with an Octorpedo that splatted me.

After I reformed at the respawn point, I could see Amy in the distance trying to avoid the Octo Shower's attacks. I hurriedly launched back over to the arena and actually landed on a tower.

"Over here!" I called to her somewhat frantically. She led the Octo Shower to me, and I fired at the Octocopters again. They quickly dodged it. "What the?!"

"Agent 4! Those are Deluxe Octocopters!" Octave explained. "Plan out where they're gonna dodge."

"Would've been nice to know earlier..." I muttered.

"Don't get sassy. That's Marie's job."

I ignored him and shot one of the copters. I continued anticipating their dodging paths and shot down two more. The last one struggled to keep the thing flying.

"One more left," Amy said. "We can do this!"

The Octo Shower fired its weapons at her again and gradually pushed her toward the edge of the arena.

"Uh, problem!" she said worriedly. "Out of ink here!"

"Oh...that's not good," I groaned. I saw the Octo Shower fly back and prepare to charge at her with the ink shower again. "And that's worse!"

It took off toward her. Thinking quickly, I super-jumped to her. Once again, time seemed to slow down. I changed back from squid form mid-flight, aimed my charger at the last Octocopter, and fired quickly. The machine fell down and skidded to a halt in front of Amy. I landed behind her and nearly rolled off the edge of the arena. I caught the ledge of it with one hand and held my charger in the other. My hearts almost beat out of my chest from the whole experience.

"Whoa...that was...AMAZING!" Amy yelled excitedly. "How did you-?!"

"JUST SPLAT THE STUPID TENTACLE!" Octave and I yelled to remind her.

"O-Oh, right!"

I soon heard the sound of the tentacle popping, and Amy quickly helped me pull myself up onto the arena. We hurriedly launched away from the Octo Shower as it whistled for more Octocopters. There was no sound except a small breeze blowing. They weren't coming. Soon, the machine sparked and began to glow green until it exploded and covered the entire area with green ink. Amy and I looked at the released zapfish while breathing heavily.

"We...We did it..." I said in amazement. "We actually did it..."

Amy couldn't contain her excitement and jumped on me with a hug.

"We totally rock!" she cheered. I felt myself become almost as overly excited as her. I hugged her tightly as well.

"Awesome job, guys!" Octave commented. "Mission accomplished! Now, break that zapfish out and head back here."

We got the zapfish and made our way back to Slimeskin Garrison.

* * *

When we got out of the kettle, Octave was waiting for us.

"Welcome back!" he said happily. "Impressive work on that mission."

"Thanks!" Amy said. She suddenly put an arm around me. "But _this_ guy was beyond awesome!"

"You think so?" I asked.

"Dude, you took out two of those Octocopters in one shot almost every time! And that last super jump when you splatted that last one in mid-air...that looked like something out of a action movie!"

"With a slightly comedic landing..." Octave said. "But regardless, nice shooting! How'd you do that last 'super-jump shot' anyway?"

"I...don't know..." I confessed. "I just did what felt came natural. Amy was in trouble, and...well, I don't know what happened..."

"You, sir, have discovered a hidden talent. Maybe chargers should be your main weapon."

"I agree!" Amy said.

"Well..." I said uneasily. "Maybe...but I'm not sure it'll be my main weapon. Maybe one of them that I'll use a lot."

"Marie's a charger main. Maybe you can show her your moves with that and she'll fall for you."

"Nice, Amy. Real nice. I'll remember that when I use you for target practice to show her."

"Oh, so you _are_ gonna do it!"

"Just shut up..."

Octave stifled a laugh.

"He's got a thing for her?" he asked her. She nodded with a wide grin. "Oh, buddy...good luck trying to win her over. It's hard trying to get her to quit being sassy to you. Trust me."

"But that's what I like..." I mumbled.

They both burst into laughter. I felt myself blush, and I began wondering when I'll take my own advice and shut up before I hurt myself further.

"C-Can we just go...please?" I begged.

"Yeah, okay, we can go," Amy said. "I've had my fun."

"Same," Octave said. "Let's get back to the cabin. Maybe the others are back waiting for us by now."

We launched back to Cuttlefish Cabin.

* * *

When we got back, the others hadn't returned yet.

"Okay, I was wrong..." Octave said.

"Maybe there was more to their mission than we thought," I suggested.

"Probably," Amy said. "But there's not much we can do without them here, so we might as well just wait here until they come back."

"I guess. I need to relax after what happened back there. They shouldn't take too long, right?"

They both shrugged. We all took a seat on the ground. It was silent for a minute until Amy broke it.

"It's unbelievable..." she said in awe.

"What is?" I asked.

"What we're doing. Fighting Octarians, saving zapfish...and a celebrity. A couple of days ago, everything seemed pretty normal. Then, poof! We're agents."

"That makes me wonder how Fin handled all of this when he first started."

"He said he was anxious about it at first, but he got used to it."

"True, but I wonder what made him keep going..."

"Well, we could ask ourselves the same question, couldn't we?" Octave added. "What exactly drives each of us to continue fighting even as things get harder?"

We all decided to give it some thought. In all honesty, I wasn't sure what my driving force was...

"I'd say, for me," he continued, "it's a chance to end the oppression that Octarians are under with Octavio as their leader."

"That's pretty noble, Octave," I said. "You fight to help your people."

"Hmm..." Amy said while still thinking. "I think we do this for pretty much the same reason. To keep Inkopolis safe and protect our people. Right?"

I nodded.

"Giving up isn't an option," I said. "Although, I'm not sure what keeps me going..."

"What do you mean?" Octave asked.

"I know I'm kinda stuck doing this, it's way too late to back out of it, and the city is depending on me and the rest of us to protect it, but I don't know what truly drives me to keep fighting."

"Maybe you do for Marie," Amy suggested.

"Okay, would you stop doing that? It's getting annoying at this point."

"But it's obvious that you like her. I saw the look in your eyes when she wanted you to become an agent. One look from her, and you melted."

"No...I..." I sighed heavily in defeat. "Alright...maybe I kinda do...but it's not a big deal..."

"Actually, I'd say it is."

"And I hate it..."

"You hate that you like her?"

"No. I hate that you're right."

"It's a satisfying experience for younger siblings to prove their older siblings wrong," Octave said. "I should know."

The two of them laughed, and I couldn't resist smiling. Seeing these two get along made it clear that our species could totally get along even after harsh conflicts. It made me wonder if Octavio would be open to the idea. Considering that he hypnotized his own grandchildren and had his own experiences fighting Inklings before, I feel like it might be almost impossible for him to think that it's possible.

* * *

 _ **AN**_ **:** **Well, that was a chapter. Sorry if you expected the final boss in this, but don't worry it'll start up in the next chapter...maybe. We'll see what'll happen.**

 ** **Until then, hope you enjoyed this chapter (Reviews and such are welcome), and I'll see you all in the next one!  
****


	19. A Hypnotizing Performance

_**AN**_ **: I have nothing else to say except I hope you enjoy this chapter. (It's really gonna be interesting.)**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 19: A Hypnotizing Performance

Eventually, Finley, Via, and Marie returned to the canyon.

Hmm...actually...you know what? I'm pretty sure Fin already told you how everything went for them, but what he didn't tell you is what went on when Marie had her little breakdown upon hearing what Callie might be doing. I'll start at the point where everyone else left the cabin after I calmed her down.

I comforted her with a hug while she quietly sobbed into my shoulder. Everyone else looked at her worryingly.

"You got this?" Fin asked me quietly. I nodded to reassure him that I did. He gave one last glance at Marie and left the cabin. The others followed leaving the two of us alone.

"Marie...?" I said carefully. "Let's have a seat."

We both separated from our hug and sat down on the floor with our backs to a wall. She looked at the floor in silence.

"Must be hard to hear...isn't it?" I said.

She nodded while wiping her eyes.

"I just don't get it. Why would she join them?"

"I don't know..." she said sadly.

"Hey, don't worry. We'll get her back even if she might be working with them."

"How are you so sure?"

"I'm starting to think anything's possible at this point."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. I never thought I'd be an agent in a million years, and yet, here I am. Fighting Octarians, freeing zapfish, helping a beautiful girl in times of trouble."

"Wait, what was that last part?"

"Um..." I felt myself blush. "Nothing..."

"Nice try, I heard that," she giggled. She blushed a bit as well. "But...thank you."

"Well, I'm sure you get that a lot especially from your fans."

"Yeah...but it's different coming from someone you know personally..."

"Maybe it's because they care about you and hate seeing you down. They probably would say or do anything to keep you from being upset."

She looked at me.

"Would you?" she asked.

"I'm still here, aren't I? In fact, I couldn't bring myself to refuse to help you when you first asked me."

"Oh...so you put yourself through all of this...just for me?"

I felt nervous as she looked at me.

"I-I...well, you know...y-you were in a tight spot...you needed help...and I couldn't just abandon you...a-and-"

Marie cut me off by giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. (I know. I couldn't believe it either.) I heard Amy yell "WHAT?!" outside of the cabin a little after that. She must've heard some big news...

"That's for...all that you've done," she said bashfully. The cabin was a bit dimly inside by a small lamp, but I could see her hair literally glow white and brighten the room a little more. She blushed as well. "I never got to thank you for it, and...I thought that would be a nice way to show it. Hope you didn't mind..."

I shook my head because I couldn't make words. You have to believe how ecstatic I was to have her kiss me. And seeing her glow like that was breathtaking. But aside from that, I may have realized something while sitting with her.

Marie was the reason I kept going in this battle with the Octarians. I wasn't gonna let her down by not giving my all. I was gonna keep fighting for her.

"So...what now?" Marie asked. Her hair went back to normal.

"W-What...?" I said while still slightly dazed.

"What do we do about Callie and Octavio?"

"O-Oh...right! Hmm...maybe the others have figured out something."

"I hope. Let's go see. And we're not gonna talk about...what I gave you...right?"

"That'll be just between us..." I stood up and offered to help her up. She smiled as she took my hand, and I helped her stand up. We left the cabin feeling a bit closer than before.

Now, I'm gonna skip ahead to after Marie explained her plan to us, and we were making final preparations.

I'll give you the short version of our plan.

Amy, Fin, Marie, and I were gonna track down and face Octavio. Octave and Via were meant to stay back and jump in as back up in case things got rough. Meanwhile, Sheldon was supposed to bring in a secret weapon that could help us out even more if things got even worse.

Alright...admittedly, it's a really basic plan that Marie came up with, but it's all we got...

Regardless, we all got our weapons ready. Fin got the shooter, Amy had the roller, Marie had the charger, and I had the dualies. Via and Octave would have a brush and a blaster respectively.

"Okay," Fin said. "Is everyone ready?"

"Ready," everyone said.

"Then, let's get down there and finish this."

We all launched down to Cephalon HQ.

* * *

When we landed at the central base, it was fully night time. It smelled pretty gross down there. The bottom of the canyon was filled with liquid which I guessed was either Octarian ink or very polluted water. Regardless, we made it a priority not to touch it. The moon was shining overhead which helped us see what was around were floating platforms and with lights and several other mechanical things everywhere which lit up the place even more.

"This place is...er...welcoming..." I said hesitantly.

"Welcome to the world of Octarian living..." Via said.

"It's great, isn't it?" Octave said sarcastically.

"We all don't want to stay here for too long," Fin said. "We are deep in their territory."

"Good thing the kettle we might need to get into is right here," Amy said while pointing to it. "What I don't understand is why this one is already open..."

"Octavio probably expects us," Marie said. "Actually, come to think of it, why isn't this guarded or something?"

"The concert," Fin said. "He's gonna need an audience. Most likely, all the Octarians are getting ready to watch it."

A collective feeling of anxiety filled the air. Nobody wanted to go into that kettle, but we had to. I dove into the kettle first, followed by Fin and Amy. However, the strange thing about this kettle was that it didn't lead down a tube. It was big enough to fit three squids. I suddenly realized why. Marie was about to go in.

"Wait! Don't get in!" I warned hastily. "It's a-"

Marie yelped as she quickly backed from the top of the kettle and something closed it.

"Trap..." I finished. We tried opening the kettle, but it wouldn't budge.

"You guys okay?!" Marie asked frantically.

"We're fine, Marie," Fin said. "I guess we'll have to adjust the plan. We can't get out of here."

"And we can't get in!" Octave said.

The faint sounds of machines becoming active came up. We felt ourselves start spinning from inside the kettle and it felt like we were descending some place.

"Oh, this can't be good..." Amy said worriedly. "What's gonna happen to us?"

"Something tells me we're about to meet Octavio," I said. "And with any luck, Callie and the Great Zapfish are with him."

We readied ourselves for the final battle. There was absolutely no turning back now.

* * *

Once we stopped moving, the floor opened up from under us, and we all fell down into a pool of dark green ink. We changed color to match it. Upon standing up, we took in our surroundings. Tons of Octarians and Octolings were watching from floating stands circling an arena floating ahead of us. There were giant screens everywhere behind the stands, and spotlights lit up the entire area.

"Can you guys here me?" Marie said through our headsets.

"Yeah, we can," I said. "We seem to also be a short ways from the actual canyon."

"How's that even possible?" Amy asked.

"Octarians must have really strange methods of transporting something or someone with ease I guess. Right, Fin?"

Fin was silent and stared forward. He slowly began walking toward a launchpad and tried to get a better look.

"What's that...?" he mumbled. He changed to his squid form and launched over to the arena. The two of us followed.

When we landed, the crowd of Octarians cheered.

In the center of the arena, we could see a girl with her back to us standing on some kind of stage with multiple speakers in a giant pool of Octarian ink. She had long, black tentacles tied in a bow, a small black leather tank top that showed her midriff, black leather shorts, and dark purple tights with sequins. She also had black shoes with a pink heel.

"Wait..." Amy said while looking at the girl. She gasped. "Is that-?!"

"Callie...?" Fin said in disbelief.

We all walked closer to her.

"Stop!" she suddenly said. We all froze in our tracks.

She looked over her shoulder before completely turning around with her arms folded. She was wearing a pair of decorated shades that seemed to bear a resemblance to the ones Octave and other Octolings were wearing, a hat that looked like an octopus tentacle, and a pair of black gloves. I could barely make out some gold earrings hanging from her ears, too. Also, we could all see a pink octopus-shaped tattoo on the side of her body.

"I told you to leave..." she said in a slightly menacing tone.

"But...Callie...w-why?" Fin said almost sadly. "We came to rescue you."

"I don't need rescuing. I've found a better audience here in the canyon. And I'm staying."

"This isn't like you, Cal. It's those shades talking. You need to take them off now! We're leaving, and you're coming with us."

"Not a chance. I still see you guys are pretty headstrong about this. That's kinda impressive. I thought you guys would have second thoughts on coming here by now."

"Callie, if you remember, I made a promise to you. And I intend to keep it."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, I should let you know that you guys came all this way just to meet your end! And since you all can't take a hint that we don't want you here..."

She took an odd dramatic pose.

"You've all left me no choice..." she continued while posing for each of her statements. "Prepare to be rocked! HEY, DJ!"

She pointed to the sky dramatically as the stage's screen behind her lit up. The ground began to shake as the stage rose up out of the ink revealing that more of a larger machine was underneath it. Below the stage that Callie was standing on was a large reddish-purple octopus wearing a black and gold kabuto helmet and a pair of green shutter shades sitting at what looked like a set of turntables. He was scowling at us with two of his tentacles folded with one having a green X-shaped scar on it. On the sides of him were several stalks of wasabi, and in front of him were what looked like doughy balls covered in a dark-colored sauce.

His flying stage and booth was spherical-shaped and decorated black and gold. There were exhaust pipes on the back of the whole thing and boosters under it keeping it in the air. On both sides of the giant machine, there were two giant golden metallic fists with brass knuckles that had Octarian words on them. But what really got our attention was the fact that the Great Zapfish was directly underneath the machine and was in the process of being sucked into it. It thrashed around a bit before finally being sucked in. The machine powered up completely while shaking a bit and blasting a loud sound.

"OCTAVIO IN DA HOUSE!" Octavio announced. His voice boomed through the whole area, and everyone cheered wildly. "Glad you could make it to the show!"

"S-So this is DJ Octavio..." I said nervously.

"Afraid so..." Fin said. "Octavio, what've you done to Callie?!"

"GYA HA HA!" he laughed evilly. "I remixed Callie's brain! She's working for me now! Nice, am I right?"

"That's sick and twisted, you giant Octo-jerk!" Amy shouted.

"Well, who do we have here? New agents?"

"That's right!"

"Oh, perfect," Callie groaned. "You wanna deal with them, too, Octavio? I got a song to sing."

"My pleasure," he said. He pulled out two wasabi stalks and rested them on the turntables. "Time to drop the beatdown!"

"Ahem, YO, OCTOS!" Callie shouted to the crowd. "You all ready?"

The crowd cheered.

"Then let's get started with the first song of the night: Bomb Rush Blush! Spin it, DJ!"

A loud song started blaring in a strange jumble of orchestral instruments. As the song played out more, it started turning into an odd mix of peppy and foreboding. Callie started singing and dancing above on her stage, and Octavio was scratching the turntables.

"No way...this is Callie's solo song!" Fin exclaimed. "He remixed it!"

Octavio's machine floated up and one of the giant fists rocketed out toward us.

"What do we do?!" I asked.

"Watch!" Fin said. He got closer to the fist as it came toward us and shot at it with ink. It suddenly flew back and hit the side of the machine. Closeups of Callie stumbling on the stage after it got hit were on the giant screens. Octavio seemed shaken, but they both got themselves together and kept going.

"Simple enough!" Amy said as the other came flying in. She swung her roller a few times and knocked it back at them.

"I need to find a way up there to get to Callie," Fin said. "But how?"

Splat bombs came flying from below Octavio's booth as Callie sang.

"Incoming!" I warned as I ran from them. The others just barely dodged the explosions.

"Cover the ground! We can move faster in ink!" Fin said as he shot around to cover the ground more. Amy and I used our weapons to do that, too.

One of the fists began spinning and then launched toward me. I tried to shoot it, but nothing happened. I dodged it before it hit me.

"Okay, spinning punches are invincible," I said. "Need to remember that."

We continued hitting the normal punches back at him and avoiding the spinning ones and the bombs.

"Come on, DJ!" Callie growled. "Get it together!"

"I'm trying!" he snapped back. After he said that, Fin knocked back a fist that sent Octavio flying from his booth and landing on his head. He was embedded in the ground struggling to get out.

"He's stunned!" Amy shouted triumphantly.

"Agent 4, quick! Hit him with ink!" Fin called out.

I rushed to Octavio and shot him with my ink. He flew back into the booth slamming into the screen behind it upside down.

"I got him!" I said.

"This isn't over yet!" Fin said. "Callie! Snap out of it! It's me, Fin! Marie and I are worried sick!"

"F-Fin...? M-Marie...?" Callie repeated. She shook her head, huffed, and took another pose. "Hmph! Shut it! DJ! Drop that spicy wasabi beat!"

Octavio had recovered and began scratching the turntables with his wasabi stalks. That actually affected the music that kept playing. (Wow, this actually was a concert...)

"GYA HA HA! Comin' with that hotness!" he said. "It'll take more than that to take down this DJ!"

He began moving a bit faster with his attacks. He began launching out those dough balls I saw which upon seeing them more closely had a tentacle stuck through it. They surrounded us and spun, forming swirling ink tornadoes. We all got out from the circle while countering the punches.

"Is that all you got?" Fin taunted. A large suction bomb landed directly in front of him.

"I'll take that as a 'NO'!" Amy said as she pulled him from it before it exploded. More followed, and we avoided the blasts.

"This is getting nowhere," Callie said with frustration. "Let me do something!"

"You need to stay up there!" Octavio said to her. "They might steal your shades!"

"Hmm, good point."

"That's it!" Fin said in realization. "If she's not coming down, I'm going up!"

Another fist launched toward him. He dodged, and it landed in the ground. He hopped onto the fist and shot it. It flew back to Octavio's machine while Fin hitched a ride. Before it hit Octavio's machine, Fin jumped off of it and landed on Callie's stage above him.

"Look, Callie," Fin said. "This is ridiculous! Just take off the stupid sunglasses already!"

"NEVER! They look good on me!" she shouted defiantly.

"You looked better without them."

"Oh, so you like this look?"

"Well, uh, you look pretty hot in that outfit. I'll admit that much. But this whole Octarian style isn't you."

"You're right. It's the _new_ me!"

She suddenly got a brush and started attacking Fin on her stage. It was small, and Fin was working hard to avoid her swings.

"Fin! Get down from there!" I said to him.

"I need to get those glasses off of her!" he said back. "You guys handle Octavio! I'll be up here!"

"B-But-" Amy started.

"You heard him!" Marie said through out headsets startling us.

"Marie?!" we said.

"Sorry I've been so quiet. I was thinking up a new plan."

"We're in a bit of a tight spot right now. We could use some help!" I said.

"Don't worry. Just hang on a bit longer. The Octo siblings and I will be there soon."

"What do you have in store?"

"You'll see. Just hang tight...and try to stay alive!"

"Easy for you to say!" Fin shouted as he ducked under another swing from Callie.

As the battle raged on, I started wondering what the other agents had planned. That plan has got to work if we want to put an end to this. At least, I hoped it would work...

If not, we are so doomed...

* * *

 ** _AN_** **: And finally, we're at the final boss and things aren't looking so good for the heroes. Will Fin break Callie out of Octavio's control? Will Arthur and Amy manage to keep themselves alive during their fight against the tyrannical octopus? And what exactly do Marie, Octave, and Via have in store? **We may find out soon.****

 ** ** ** **Until then, I hope you all liked this chapter (reviews and such are always welcome) and I'll see you all in the next one!********


	20. Turning the Tides

_**AN**_ **: Oh, man, this is it! The final battle's conclusion! Also, just a warning. Since there are so many things going on at once, the narration is gonna be different in this one. Hope you like it.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Chapter 20: Turning the Tides

Okay, Fin here, and can I just say this? I've heard of couples getting into fights before, but I never thought that I'd literally be having one against my own girlfriend. Well, to be specific, it was more like she was attacking me, and I was dodging her brush which was hard to do since the stage she was on wasn't exactly big enough for both of us to stand on.

"Callie, stop!" I pleaded. "You've got to fight his control!"

She continued swinging her brush.

"For an agent, you're pretty lousy at battling," she taunted.

"That's because I'm not trying to hurt you."

She swung it again. I ducked and grabbed the handle of the brush. She didn't let go of it, and we struggled to take it from each other.

"Let go!" she yelled.

"Not if you're gonna keep using it!" I said.

She swept my legs from under me, and I fell on my back. She tried to slam the brush on me while I was down, but I went into my squid form and narrowly avoided it. I climbed up the brush and snatched the glasses off her face.

"HEY! GIVE THOSE BACK!" she snapped at me. Before she reached for them, I got from off her brush and put a bit of distance between us. She rushed to me and started attacking more viciously.

"That should've worked!" I said. "Why is she still attacking?!"

"It'll take too long for her to get back to normal," Octave said through my headset. "She needs something to snap her out of it!"

"Like wha-AAH!" I was cut off when Callie suddenly tackled me. She had me pinned down by her brush. Her eyes pierced into mine. "Callie, please, try to remember!"

Her eyes softened just slightly.

"F-Finley...?" she mumbled in soft voice.

"Yes! It's me! Keep remembering!" I said. I felt like I was making a breakthrough. She looked at me pleadingly for a split second. In that time, I could tell that her old self was still in there, but she couldn't break completely free from the Octavio's control. She shook her head and kept me pinned down.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Amy were working hard to counter Octavio's attacks.

"Agent 3! You okay up there?!" Amy called to me.

"Could be better!" I said. Arthur finally managed to knock back a fist which hit the machine.

Callie lost her balance and rolled off of me. I stood up quickly and tried to keep my balance. Callie quickly grabbed her shades and put them back on. She smiled sinisterly as she looked at me again.

"Um, Marie? You guys coming any time soon?!" I said frantically.

"We're on our way now!" she said through my headset.

"Well, hurry!"

As I said that, Callie surprised me with a solid hit to my chest which made me stumble back and made me lose my balance on her stage. Another fist hit the machine which made my balance worse.

"Octavio's out of the cockpit again!" Arthur said.

"I got him!" Amy said.

"NO! WAIT!" I shouted.

She hit him with her roller which sent him flying back to his mech making it shake more. At this point, I slipped off the stage and fell from it, but I managed to catch the edge of the stage with one hand. I was hanging from the stage when Callie came and started looking at me with an evil grin.

"Hmph! You're cute, but you're not so tough," she said. I tried to shoot ink at her with my shooter, but she knocked it out of my hand, and it fell in the distance.

"Callie, you-" I was cut off when she stepped hard on the hand that I was using to hold myself up there. I bit back the scream of pain from that. (Did she _really_ have to wear heels, too?!)

"Save it!" she demanded. "I'm sick of hearing whatever you're blabbering about. Face it! You've lost!"

"That's what you and Octavio think!" I heard Marie say defiantly through the speakers all around the place. The music slightly changed and started sounding more serene. I heard Marie singing to it as well.

"Marie?!" the other agents and I exclaimed.

"Guys, I'm here!"

I saw a big truck fly by us. And, yeah, I literally mean _fly_. I recognized the truck as one of the ones that the Squid Sisters performed on before, and Sheldon was driving it. On the stage on top of it, Marie was standing in her Squid Sister outfit holding a charger.

"You!" Octavio bellowed. "What're you doing here?!"

"Saving my cousin!" she shouted as she took aim at Callie and fired. Callie shrieked in surprise as she got hit directly in the face with ink, and the force of the shot knocked the shades off her face. They flew off into the distance, and Callie stumbled back off my hand. It was aching from her standing on it that I couldn't hold on to the ledge anymore. I looked down and released my grip. Sheldon brought the truck around to catch me. I changed into my squid form as I fell next to Marie.

"NO! MY HYPNOSHADES!" Octavio yelled.

"You okay?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said in astonishment. "I thought for a second you were gonna splat her. That shot was amazing!"

"I just hope the ink works."

"The ink?"

"That was 'low-tide ink' I shot her with. You can kinda thank Via for making it."

"What's it supposed to do?"

I heard a few bumps from inside the truck.

"It should speed up the process of Callie turning back to normal," Via explained. "With any luck, it should take a few more minutes."

"Really?"

I turned quickly to see Callie still on the stage. She groaned while she held her head in pain.

"Get me back to..." I started to say. I stopped when I felt the pain in my hand again.

"You should probably take it easy, Fin," Marie said.

"Y-You're right. And I still hate when you are! But isn't there anything we can do to help her?"

"Afraid not..." Octave said. "This stuff is still a prototype. The pain is a side effect. But music might help jog her memories more."

"Which is why my song is playing," Marie said. Upon listening closer, I could here Marie singing her own solo song "Tide Goes Out" only it was being mixed with the song that was already playing and Callie was still dancing on her stage albeit a bit more in a dazed state.

"I'm not finished yet!" Octavio declared. He flew back in his mech and ink started pouring from the front of it. He charged forward.

"Guys! Watch out!" I yelled to Amy and Arthur. They dodged out of the way of the ink shower. Since I lost my weapon, all I could do was watch. I didn't like just sitting on the sidelines, but I doubt I'd be useful without use of a weapon. It was all up to those two now...

* * *

Arthur here hoping that it wasn't all up to us now! From what I managed to gather from the conversation going on through my headset, I learned that Fin was out of commission, Marie was singing, and Callie was getting closer to changing back to her old self. Until that managed to happen, Amy and I tried to hold our own against Octavio. He was beginning to get harder to counter against.

"Uh, how long do we keep countering his punches?!" I asked somewhat frantically.

"Just enough to blast him back into his booth one last time," Octave said. "I've scanned the machine. If you can launch him back into it, his music will cut out."

"What good will that do?"

"We're gonna try to hack into it again and blast a particular song," Via said. "One that I'm sure will be his downfall."

"Just keep countering," Fin said.

"B-But...I..." I began to say. Amy somehow got close to me.

"We've gone this far already," she said. "We can do this. We have to for Callie and the Great Zapfish's sake."

I looked at Callie and back at her. I then nodded confidently.

"Okay," I said. "Let's give it all we got."

"That's the spirit!" she cheered.

We readied ourselves to keep battling Octavio. We kept countering his punches and sent them flying back. Somehow, it got easier to do. Everyone else cheered us on as we fought. Eventually, Octavio got knocked out of his booth again.

"Oh, not again!" he growled.

"Shall we?" Amy asked.

"Yep," I said.

We got closer to him and simultaneously launched him back into his machine. At that moment, the music suddenly slowed to a stop.

"Ow..." Callie groaned as she rubbed her eyes. "There's ink in my eyes! Ugh...my head...what's going on...?"

"I think Callie's coming to!" I said.

"Callie! Up here!" Marie called out to her.

"Marie?! Finley?!" Callie said in surprise.

"If you're ready to play the song, go ahead, guys," Fin said to the Octolings.

"Give us a second..." Octave said.

"And done!" Via declared. "Get closer to Callie and bring her on here!"

"I'm on it!" Sheldon replied.

A new song started playing, and Callie slightly jumped.

"Remember that heavenly melody?" Marie said while making a pose.

"The one and only..." Callie said while making the same one. "I...I remember!"

"Then hop on!"

"YEAH!" Callie then leapt onto the truck stage.

As the song really started up, the reunited cousins began singing and dancing in sync.

"The Squid Sisters are back!" Sheldon declared happily.

Octavio let out a frustrated growl. He flew his machine high in the air where we couldn't reach him.

"I think that's our cue," Via said. "Three! Activate the ride rails!"

"On it!" he said. He took Marie's charger, and the truck moved up closer to Octavio's level. He fired the charger at two bulbs and two rails of ink shot out into a ring around Octavio.

"And now, it's time for the new agents to make it rain," Octave said. "Heh, I was saving that one."

We heard a loud smacking sound, and Octave yelling in pain.

"Just shut up and send them the weapon!" Via ordered.

"Fine..." he groaned.

A drone came down from the truck, and a weapon popped out of the case it was holding. Amy and I caught it. It looked like a big golden fish with a cannon of sorts coming from its mouth. We knew what it was immediately.

"A Rainmaker?!" we said in shock.

"I modified it for occasions like this," Sheldon explained. "Probably one of my best works yet. Show me what it can do against him!"

"How do we use it?" I asked.

"Charge it up, then release the trigger to fire," Amy said.

"Head up here, and finish this!" Marie said.

"Right!" we said.

At that moment, a launchpad became active in the center of the arena. Amy launched up with the Rainmaker, and I followed. We landed on the same rail in our squid forms.

"Um...how do we...?" I asked.

"Stand up and grind," Fin said.

We hopped up and changed to our normal forms and started grinding on the rails.

"This is weird, but it's so cool!" Amy cheered as we got our balance.

"Rainmaker!" Octavio snarled as fired another fist at us. Amy fired the rainmaker at it. It slowed for a second then turned around and hit him.

He fired a spinning punch at us next.

"I don't think this will be enough to hit it back!" I said. "Jump!"

We jumped over the punch and landed on the second rail.

Octavio dashed behind us so that he could attack from behind. I hopped onto the second rail. He launched a normal fist and a spinning fist at both of us.

"Hey, let me try!" I said to Amy.

She and I jumped to avoid the spinning punch and she passed me the Rainmaker. As I landed, I charged and fired at the other fist which sent it back to him.

"That's two hits!" Octave said.

"Six more should finish him off," Via said.

"Hey, one hit for each of his tentacles," Amy said as she jumped over another punch.

With the Squid Sisters singing their song and the others cheering for us, a strong wave of adrenaline rushed through my body. I felt like I could do almost anything. I knew that this could be the end of this whole adventure, and there was no room to fail. I smiled as I started enjoying this decisive battle, but that didn't keep me from keeping my head in the game.

Amy and I continued grinding on the rails and jumping from one to the other. Periodically, we would switch who was holding the Rainmaker. Octavio continued launching punches at us that we either jumped over or shot back at him. He would often dash and punch to catch us off-guard. Long story short, it didn't work.

Eventually, we got up to six hits on him. We had three hits on him each. The truck stage flew by us.

"Two more hits, guys!" Fin said. "You can do this!"

"I CAN'T...RESIST THE GROOVE...ANY LONGER!" Octavio said as he was jumping in his booth to the beat of the song.

He spied the truck, and his eyes made it obvious that he was up to something. To give you an idea, he didn't have a visible mouth, but if he did, he'd probably be smiling wickedly.

"TAKE THIS!" he yelled. He launched a spinning fist that seemed to go a little faster than usual.

"Incoming!" Amy said as she and I prepared to jump over it. However, this time it didn't head straight for us. It went overhead and towards the truck.

"Look out!" I yelled to them.

The Squid Sisters yelled in surprise as they saw it coming toward them.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Fin said. I saw him launch up to the fist from the truck, and when he turned to his human form, his whole body was covered in green ink. He pulled back a fist and punched the spinning fist himself. When it connected, a large blast of green ink shattered the metal fist similar to how it did whenever it hit Octavio. Fin fell down and landed on the rail near us and started grinding on it as well.

Everyone was awestruck at what he did. Even the crowd of Octarians cheered.

"Now, _that's_ how you use a Splashdown!" Fin cheered.

"That was awesome!" Amy and I cheered.

"Stay focused, guys!"

"SPLAT ALL OF YOU!" Octavio roared angrily. He fired another fist at us, and Amy countered it again. Another spinning punch almost hit her, but she jumped over it and onto the next rail to dodge it. She passed the Rainmaker to me again.

"Okay, we got-WHOA!" Amy said right before another spinning fist nearly hit her. She lost her balance before falling off the rail. Fin jumped to her rail and caught her by her hand.

"One more hit should do it!" Via said.

"Take the shot, Arthur!" Amy and Fin told me.

I jumped over another spinning punch before a normal one came straight at them. I charged up the Rainmaker, jumped over the spinning fist, and launched the fist back at Octavio in mid-air.

When the returned punch connected, Octavio yelled as his mech did a backflip and began shooting out sparks. It lost power and fell to the center of the arena with a loud crash.

"I DID IT!" I cheered happily.

"Nice work!" everyone else said.

Fin swung Amy back onto the rail, and she got her balance on it.

"Thanks," she said to him.

Fin nodded.

"Are we done?" I asked.

"Not just yet," Fin said. He took out the charger and shot at another bulb. A third rail came from it stopping just above Octavio. "This is a Rainmaker battle after all."

"Oh, I get it..." Amy said with a grin. "Time for a knockout?"

"Yep, and let's do it together."

I pieced together what they were planning. I nodded in agreement, and we all hopped onto the third rail.

"Jump on 'three'?" I asked as we got closer to Octavio. They nodded as they grabbed the Rainmaker. "One..."

"Two..." they said.

"THREE!" we all announced.

We jumped off the rail and slammed the Rainmaker on a dazed Octavio and jumped away from him. (I could've sworn I heard a whistle once we did...)

"Is it over?" Amy asked.

His mech powered down. Smoke and sparks began to come from it.

" _Now_ , it's finally over," Fin sighed.

"Great," I sighed heavily.

The truck came down and landed, and the Squid Sisters hopped off of it. They high-fived. The three of us went over to see them.

"Heh, glad to see a happy reunion," I said as we got there.

"You said it," Fin said. "Glad to have you back, Callie."

Callie quickly hugged him tightly. Even her tentacles wrapped around him. He happily hugged her as well.

"I'm glad to be back!" she said. "Thank you! All of you! And I'm so sorry for trying to kill you guys! I hope you can forgive me!"

"Of course we can, Callie!" Marie said as she hugged her.

"Yeah," Amy said. "You weren't yourself, and we helped bring you back. It was no trouble."

"Speak for yourself..." I mumbled. She hit me with her elbow. "Just joking..."

"By the way, Callie, I wanted to ask something."

"What's up?" she asked.

"Is that tattoo on your body permanent?"

Callie looked down at the tattoo in surprise.

"I...don't remember getting this..." she admitted nervously.

"I really hope it isn't..." Marie said uneasily.

Octavio came to and pushed the Rainmaker aside. His mech rolled forward enough for him to fall to the pavement.

"Ugh..." he groaned. "Okay...I may be down, but I'm still not out yet!"

"He just doesn't know when to give up, does he?" I asked.

"Nope..." Marie and Fin said. We all then took notice of Callie. She looked absolutely furious at Octavio.

"Oh...this might get ugly..." Fin said worriedly. "Callie...?"

"YOU...!" she growled through her teeth.

"I don't think I'll be able to stop her this time..."

"I'd get away from her if I were you..." Marie warned as she and Fin gave her some space. Amy and I hurriedly put some distance between us and her.

"Oh, the big, bad popstar is gonna hurt me," Octavio said sarcastically. "I'm so scared..."

Callie let out a loud scream and charged at Octavio. She grabbed one his tentacles, and somehow, despite him being a lot bigger than her, she flipped him over her head and slammed him onto the ground. She repeatedly did this (as well as other forms of pummeling him) for a couple of minutes before kicking him back into his mech. He got embedded head first into the screen behind his booth.

"Ow..." he groaned miserably. "Not again...cross-fade...to black..."

His mech slowly flew backward with him in it. It suddenly filled up with green ink until it exploded...or "inksploded"...and showered ink everywhere. (I feel like that joke has been done already...) All that was leftover was the Great Zapfish floating ahead of us.

"Hmph!" Callie sneered as she wiped her hands and walked back to us. "That's what he gets for what he did to me!"

All of us looked at her in shock.

"What?" she asked in her normal sweet tone. "I'm not wrong, am I?"

"No, I-I guess not..." Fin said nervously. "But...I don't think I've ever seen that side of you before..."

"It didn't scare you, did it...?"

"Actually, I kinda liked that."

She smiled as they embraced and shared a kiss.

"Aw..." Amy said.

"Now what was that you said about me being 'hot' in this outfit?" Callie said with a smirk.

"Um..." Fin chuckled nervously. His tentacles instantly turned red. "I...didn't think you'd remember that..."

"Oh, I remember. Bear in mind, I'm keeping it. Just without the shades."

"And the tattoo?"

"I'm hoping it'll wash off."

"Okay, so Octavio's stopped, Callie's back, and the Great Zapfish is saved," Octave said. "Can we go now?"

"You read my mind, Octave," Marie said. "Our job is done here."

With that, all of us got on top of the truck made our way out of there and back to Cuttlefish Cabin with the Great Zapfish Following us.

* * *

Once we got back to the cabin, we saw a snow globe nearby. It looked like it had already been broken and somewhat hastily put back together.

"When did that get here?" I asked.

"I repaired and brought it here in the truck just in case," Sheldon said.

"In case of what?" Amy asked.

The Great Zapfish made a weird sound and it's cheeks puffed out a little. It then spit out an unconscious Octavio next to the snow globe.

"I asked him to bring it in case _that_ happened...again..." Marie said while shuddering in disgust.

"I'm starting to think the Great Zapfish just doesn't like wasabi..." Callie said.

"Probably..." Fin said uneasily.

"That reminds me," Amy said. "Where are Octave and Via?"

The back of the truck opened up, and they hopped out of it.

"You rang?" Octave said.

"Octave!" Callie said as she hugged him. "Last time I saw you, you were hypnotized, too."

"Yeah, but not anymore, or ever again hopefully. By the way, have you met my sister, Via?"

Callie looked at Via. Via looked away from her nervously.

"Wait!" Callie exclaimed. "You're that Octoling that tried to splat me before!"

"Uh...yeah..." Via said uneasily. "Sorry about that...I was under his control back then, too. So...no hard feelings...?"

"Hey, I've been there. I get it. No hard feelings."

Via smiled a bit.

"So what about Octavio?" I said.

"Help me get him into the snow globe," Fin said as he went to him. We all put him in it and closed it.

"Okay, so now that that's over, the Great Zapfish needs to go back to the square," I said. "But after throwing him up, will it be okay?"

"She should be fine," Fin said. "She's just gonna go rest for the night."

"She?" Amy said. "You mean it's a girl?"

"Where do you think the little ones come from?"

"Oh..." we said.

"Speaking of rest..." Marie said while yawning. "Let's go home. What time is it anyway?"

"Hmm...past midnight..." Fin said while checking his phone.

"Ugh..."

"You guys go ahead," Octave said. "Via and I still have some stuff to take care of first."

"Like?" Fin asked.

"Making sure that our people are okay after what Octavio put them through," Via said. "That song probably helped break them free of his control."

"How can you tell?"

"It had the same effect on many of them when you first fought him two years ago. Maybe this affected more of them."

"Hmm, maybe. By the way, that song sounded like Calamari Inkantation. Only remixed. What's it called?"

"In honor of a certain pair of Octolings remixing it," Marie started while glancing at them. "I call it 'Spicy Calamari Inkantation'."

"I liked it," Callie said. "It's a good remix. How'd you learn how to do that?"

"Let's just say music runs in the family," Octave said.

"Huh?"

"We'll tell you later," Fin said.

"Anyway," Via said. "We might as well get going. We have a lot of work to do..."

"Take care, guys," Octave said as they turned to leave.

"Thanks for all the help, you two," Amy said. "Will we see you around?"

"I might be visiting Inkopolis very often after this. I still need to explore it more. Not sure about her, though."

"I'm open to seeing more of it," Via said. "Especially if it means keeping you out of trouble."

"Hey!"

"Heh heh."

We all said our goodbyes as they changed into their octopus forms and launched away.

"You know," Callie said when they were gone. "Despite being the grandkids of the guy that tried to destroy us, they're pretty cool. Glad they're not evil like him."

"You knew?!" we all said in surprise.

"Well, yeah. Octave and I were under his control. I was bound to find out somehow."

"Uh, good point," Fin said. "Guess I don't need to tell you then."

We all laughed a bit.

"I'm just glad this is over now," Amy said. "Finally, we can go home."

"Yeah..." I said.

"But not without an autograph first."

"I should've seen that coming..."

Amy got her autograph from Callie and was overjoyed that she got both Squid Sisters' signatures.

"Now, we can go home," Amy said after she calmed down.

We all headed back down the grate to Inkopolis and went back to our respective homes.

When Amy and I returned to our apartment, we got ourselves ready for bed.

"Arthur?" Amy said.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"I know it's weird to say considering how hard it was, but...I love being an agent."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

I thought a little bit about it and came to a conclusion.

"You know what, Amy? I love being an agent, too."

She smiled and turned to go to her room. She stopped for a second before coming back and hugging me.

"Thanks for watching my back, big bro" she said.

I hugged her back.

"Thanks for watching mine, sis," I said.

With that, we both went off to bed happy to know that despite all the struggles and unexpected changes that we've been through, we still came out on top as heroes. I personally hoped things could get back to normal the next day.

* * *

 _ **AN**_ **: Now, this would be a good spot to end the story, but...not just yet with a few things left unanswered. We'll see what happens in the next chapter.**

 **Until then, I hope you all liked this one, and I'll see you in the next one!**


	21. Epilogue

_**AN**_ **: Well...looks like this is it. What better way to end a story then by finishing it on the day it was created? Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Splatoon 2: Next Wave

Epilogue

The next day started with Amy and I waking up around the same time. We got ourselves ready for the day and headed out.

When we got to the square, we found it buzzing with excitement, and everyone was looking up at the Great Zapfish wrapped around Deca Tower.

"It's finally back!" someone exclaimed.

"Finally, we can battle again!" another said.

The Off the Hook News broadcast began airing on the jumbo screen on the tower.

"Y'all know what time it is!" Pearl said.

"It's Off the Hook, coming at you live from Inkopolis Square!" Marina announced.

"We got breaking news! The Great Zapfish is back on Deca Tower!"

"Really?! That's great!"

A shot of the Great Zapfish on the tower.

"Pearlie, remind me to get a picture of that," Marina said.

"I will. It's so good to have it back!" Pearl said. "Hmm...but for some reason, I remember it being a lot bigger than that."

"Actually...now that you mention, you're right. It wasn't always that small, was it?"

"Who knows? I bet it's fine. And now...wait...WE HAVE MORE BREAKING NEWS?!"

"What now?!"

A picture of Callie appeared on the screen behind them.

"Holy carp! Callie's been found!" Pearl announced. "You guys are seeing this, too, right?! Now, THAT'S news!"

"She's back?!" Marina said happily. "Yay! I was afraid we wouldn't see her again!"

"We're glad you're back, Callie. Being the best is too easy without competition!"

"Seriously! It takes two to make the one and only Squid Sisters."

"Yo, Marina. Let's drop a new track to celebrate!"

"Good idea. I got the perfect one. This next song request comes from 'Freshly Fried Boy.' It's the new hit single from the Squid Sisters, 'Fresh Start'!"

A very calm and soothing song started playing all around the square as multiple Inklings cheered. The Squid Sisters were heard singing to it, too.

Amy and I smiled at each other.

"You think anyone will know we had a hand in that?" Amy asked.

"Well, they said we had to keep it a secret," I said. "But who knows for sure?"

"Right. So, wanna battle?"

"Sure."

Before I got to the tower, I got a message from Marie.

"Actually, hold on," I said. "Marie wants us to come back to the canyon."

"Aw...already?" Amy said disappointedly.

"Tell you what. I'll go. I'll catch up with you in a bit."

"Alright."

She went into the tower, and I went down the grate.

I came out in Octo Canyon. Behind me was a grumpy DJ Octavio floating in the snow globe. Callie and Fin were chatting with each other before noticing me.

"Hey, Arthur," they greeted happily.

"Hey," I said. "What's going on?"

"Nothing much. Just enjoying the day together," Fin said. Callie snuggled against him.

"Blech..." Octavio groaned in disgust.

"I take it he's not going anywhere soon," I said while pointing to him.

"Not at all," Callie said.

"I'M STARVING IN HERE!" Octavio yelled.

"We can cook your wasabi into a dish I know," Fin said. Octavio held his two wasabi stalks tightly and glared at him.

"You wouldn't dare..." he said in a low voice. "You'll have to pry these from my cold, dead tentacles!"

"That can be arranged," Callie said while glaring at him.

"AAH!" Octavio cowered behind his wasabi stalks.

Fin rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Where's Marie?" I asked. "She asked me to come here."

"She's over there looking at Inkopolis," Callie said. "She wanted to have a private talk with you."

"Oh. Then it's a good thing Amy didn't come along."

They nodded in agreement, and I walked over to Marie. I could partially hear Callie and Fin giggling behind me as I got closer to her.

"Marie?" I said.

"Hi, Arthur," she said happily while turning to me. We looked at each other in silence for a second. "So..."

"So...we did it..."

"Yeah..."

"I suppose you and Callie are gonna keep your careers going, huh?"

"We will...maybe after a little break from it all."

"Right...you know, they're playing a song you guys sung in the square. You have a really nice singing voice."

"Thank you."

"Once you get back to it, will I see you again since you'll probably be really busy?"

"Maybe...but who knows? Things can get kinda hectic for us."

"Oh..."

"Yeah..."

We stood there in an awkward silence again before I decided to speak up to break it.

"So..." I started. "Did you...need me for something...?"

"Oh! Uh...yeah," she said. "I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am for your help for all of this. I don't think I could've done it without you..."

"Well, it was no prob-...okay, it may have been a bit problematic in some cases, but it was worth it to help you get Callie and the zapfish back."

"I don't just mean that."

"Huh?"

"When I was upset about hearing what happened to her, you were quick to calm me down. It was a bit embarrassing to break down like that in front of everyone honestly..."

"Well, I hated seeing you upset. Someone had to say something."

"I'm glad you stayed the whole time, too. What kept you here anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"You didn't seem thrilled about becoming an agent in the first place. Your sister was, but that couldn't have been the only reason you agreed to do it. What changed your mind?"

I felt myself blush. I may have been nervous, and I may have been afraid of what she would say next. But you wanna know what I won't have? I probably won't have any better chance to tell her my feelings. I took a deep breath.

"Well..." I said slowly. "I think...you kept me going..."

She looked at me in surprise.

"W-What...?" she said.

"One look at you and how much you needed my help convinced me to help you. I don't think I could've said 'no' to you."

"Why not?"

"I couldn't refuse because I really like y-"

I covered my mouth quickly. Marie's eyes grew wide when I did. She blushed.

"Y-You do?!" she said quietly.

I nodded slowly.

"I-I do..." I said.

She looked at her parasol and closed it. She gave me a quick bump on the head with it.

"Ow...what was-" I began. She cut me off by kissing me. I was caught off-guard by this, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. After a bit, she and I separated. We found ourselves still holding each other. Neither of us wanted to let go.

"I like you, too..." she said with a smile.

"T-That was...wow..." I stuttered.

"Didn't think a celebrity would do that to you, huh?"

"Not in a million years..."

"I guess the million year wait is over."

I smiled, and we held each other closer.

"About time he said it!" I heard Fin say.

We both jumped in surprise and turned to see him and Callie watching us nearby.

"Hey!" Marie said in annoyance. "We don't want an audience!"

"But it was cute," Callie said.

"I oughta splat both of you!"

"Not if we do first," Fin said.

"I'm up for that challenge," I said.

Fin smirked.

"About time you said that, too," he said.

With that, we all went back to the square and had our own private matches. We found ourselves enjoying it so much that the entire day seemed to be gone quickly. But honestly, we loved every minute of it.

* * *

And now, I guess it's time for me to wrap things up.

So...what happened next?

With the square more active again with Inklings battling without fear of another power outage, I continued battling without any anxiety. Amy and I eventually did have that rematch against Stinger and Storm. Long story short, we beat them by a long shot.

The Squid Sisters took a vacation to Calamari County like they had planned earlier and were glad to have each others' company again. Their careers continued, but it became a lot more bearable for them to handle. It was good to see that they were still as close as ever despite circumstances keeping them a bit distant.

Octave and Via eventually announced that they would be making plans to move to Inkopolis. We were all happy to hear that they wanted to make a new life for themselves here and offered to help them in any way we could. They planned to move because they had a feeling that they wouldn't be the only ones coming to the city. None of us were sure what they meant by that...

Marie and I also ended up becoming a couple. It's hard to believe, but we actually did. Although she was busy with her celebrity work, we still made time to be with each other. Fin did warn me about the possible chance that people would either look at me with envy or try to take a bunch of pictures. We didn't let any of that keep us from enjoying our dates, though.

Speaking of Finley, he actually had some extra plans. Callie and Marie's grandfather, Cap'n Cuttlefish, had previously asked him to accompany him to Mt. Nantai which was located outside of the city near the Octarian's old home of Octo Valley. The cap'n wanted to do some investigating about rumors and stories going on there involving loud screams and strange disappearances. Fin went with him sporting a different suit with a dark, slightly tattered cape with the number '3' on it. Some of us were a bit nervous about them going up there by themselves especially by a place where Octarians used to live, but they assured us that they would be fine and come back soon. Oh, well...it's not like they're gonna find something super-deadly or anything there, right?

As for me, after going through all of that, I knew for sure that my life will never be the same again.

But I did have this question in my mind. If I had the chance, would I do any of this again?

Honestly, I would...and I wouldn't change a thing.

* * *

 _ **AN**_ **: And that's that. The end.**

 **I really want to thank you all for reading this and for all the positive reviews. It was an odd experience switching between narrators for this, but I'm happy about how it turned out.**

 **Now, with the end of this story, you may be wondering if I'm doing an Octo Expansion story. Answer: Definitely! (If the hints in this story weren't a dead giveaway). Expect that story to begin soon.**

 **Until then, thanks again for reading! I hoped you liked this story (reviews and such are always welcome), and I'll see you all when my next one comes out!**


End file.
